January 2nd 1855 | Hotel Windsor, | Rue de Rivoli
My dear John,
At length I have time to write you a line to tell you that I am at length married1 and as happy as I can well conceive. Anna and I have not quarreled yet nor do I see any cause to fear we shall do so. On the contrary I am more satisfied every day at the important step I have taken and more confident that its influence upon both of us will be a permanently good one. After spending a very pleasant week in Dublin and Newry,2 I went with Anna on the day before our wedding to the residence of her married brother3 at Kilbroney, near Rostrevor. I was very unwell all that day, and as I had reason to believe that my illness was caused by want of exercise and too many luxuries I fasted all day. I slept tranquilly all night and rose on the morning of my wedding day in better health and spirits than I ever enjoyed in my life before. The weather which for a long time had been dismal had suddenly changed to a bright clear frost. It would be difficult to imagine a prettier and more cheering view than the one I had from my bedroom window on that memorable morning. Carlingford Bay4 glittered like a silver mirror at the foot of the bold hills whose summits were white with frost and for the first time for a week the sun shone brilliantly on everything. I rose dressed myself in my wedding garments, threw a cloak around me and walked out with my cigar to ponder well what I was about to do that day. I returned encouraged by my walk and the change that had been wrought in my face since the previous day astonished everyone. I was a newborn man. I rejoiced in my own strength and my feelings no doubt radiated from my face. Soon after 12 we were married. The Presbyterian minister5 gave us a short & excellent introductory address. I heard and weighed every syllable of it and with a few paltry exceptions I felt I could endorse all he had said as to our duties to one another to God & to society.6 The wedding feast was gorgeous, my wife’s and my own health were drunk of course and I stood on my feet without hesitation and with a great pride thanked them all. People told me afterwards that I spoke well and indeed I think I did for I never felt more power to do so. We left in the afternoon for Dublin[;] as we drove away with four horses and 2 postilions they cheered us in true Irish style and did not forget to throw after us the old slipper. The last cheer had died away in the distance before I became conscious that my wife, the soul I had promised to protect until God should separate us by death was at my side weeping bitterly, she knew not why. It was not very difficult to dry such tears and before we had reached the Railway station7 about 12 miles distant she was as cheerful and trustful as I could wish and has continued so ever since and God willing will do so for some time to come. We made the rest of our way to Paris where we were heartily welcomed by John Martin.8 I must speak to you about him another time. An hour ago he took her away from me for the first time & I have taken advantage of their absence to write this. In about a fortnight or so we shall be in London. I should like to stop with you best but I am not sure that we shall do so. I will let Anna do as she pleases for women have their own particular reasons for preferring one place of residence to another[;] she knows the people in Cecil Street9 so well that it is probable she would prefer stopping there. We will see and tell you in time. Here we have two very cosy little rooms and since Anna went out I have been and hired a neat little piano to surprise her. I am just posting your letter to Moigno,10 and I will call upon Despretz shortly. I hope you are well and in good spirits. Write to me here. Anna has got some Brides Cake11 for you which she is going to deliver herself.
Thine affectionately | T. A. Hirst
RI MS JT/1/H/211
I am … married: Thomas Archer Hirst married Anna Martin, daughter of the late Samuel Martin (1749–1831), on 28 December 1854 at Kilbroney, Rostrevor, County Down (Dublin Evening Mail, January 1, 1855). See also account in Hirst Journal, RI MS JT/2/32b/1155–9. Rostrevor is an attractively positioned village on the north side of Carlingford Lough (Bay); it stands on the east coast of Ireland about 52 miles north of Dublin and 37 miles south-west of Belfast. The 1851 census recorded a population of 764.
Newry: an historical city in County Down, about 7½ miles north-west of Rostrevor.
her married brother: Robert Martin (1814–58), who lived at Kilbroney.
Carlingford Bay: ‘Carlingford Bay […] is one of the most beautiful of the inland bays of Ireland. […] It is about a mile and a half wide at its sea-gate, and runs up into the land rather more than seven Irish miles, of the same medium breadth, though in parts wider in parts narrower. It is closely bounded on the whole of its southern shore by the chain of Carlingford and Newry mountains, and, over a considerable portion of its northern border, by the still more magnificent range of the Mourne mountains and Slievebane’ (J. Forbes, Memorandums Made in Ireland in the Autumn of 1852, 2 vols (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1853), vol. 2, pp. 255–6).
The Presbyterian minister: probably the Rev. John Moran of the Rostrevor Presbyterian Church.
our duties to one another to God & to society: marriage vows, together with minister’s own comments.
the Railway station: probably the railway station at Newry, the distance being about 12 miles by road.
Paris … John Martin: Anna’s eldest brother, John, who was a prominent Irish nationalist, had been sentenced to transportation to Tasmania in 1848 but had been released in 1854 and granted a ‘conditional pardon’ that enabled him to travel to Paris. Under the terms of the pardon he was forbidden to return to Ireland. Hirst recorded in his Journal (RI MS JT/2/32b/1159) that John Martin was ‘one of the gentlest, kindest souls I have met – one of “God’s own gentlemen” […] His sensitive, sympathetic, affectionate heart is the key to his political history. His intellect is kept too much under the sway of his feelings for him ever to be a practical and efficient politician; […] His intellect is by no means strong, nor has he much decision of character. In fact. his character is more feminine than masculine in its nature.’
the people in Cecil Street: Cecil Street is to the south of the Strand. According to the 1852 directory of London, Mrs Mary Gray was the proprietor of the lodging house at 9 Cecil Street, where Anna stayed from 13 to 19 January. It would appear that Anna Hurst knew Mrs Gray or others living at that address.
your letter to Moigno: letter missing. The French Catholic priest François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno (1804–84) had published a number of scientific papers and popular books on such subjects as optics and the electric telegraph. Moigno later translated Tyndall’s books into French.
Brides Cake: A rich, highly ornamented cake, eaten at a wedding (OED).
Please cite as “Tyndall1027,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on