14 Waverley Place | St Johns Wood
My dear Tyndall,
Many thanks for your note1 – The kind of praise your friend2 gave me is just what I would desire & I confess my vanity is pleasantly tickled thereby
Had I imagined you needed a ticket3 I would have sent you one – But I imagined that as one of their instructors4 you were free to come and go – I am sorry I can’t send you one now but they only gave me three & I don’t like to ask for any more – being a paid servant of their worships.5 Little Brayley6 (who knows a thing or two more than God almighty) says its the most heretical Syllabus7 he has seen – so I send you one to judge.
I wish I could come & hear you tomorrow8 but its impossible as I dined out on Monday & have to go to the Royal9 on Thursday and to dine out on Saturday–
When will you come up here? I have a hundred things to talk to you about[.] Will you come & breakfast on Sunday morning10 & then we can have a long yarn.
If any body asked me to do such a thing I should consider it a personal insult but you know you confessed to a habit of walking for an hour before breakfast.
Fix your own hour – 9. 10 or 11.
Ever yours faithfully | T. H. Huxley.
Prof. Tyndall
IC MS HP 9.20
your note: letter missing.
your friend: not identified.
a ticket: to attend Huxley’s course at the London Institution on ‘The General Laws of Life’; see n. 7, below.
one of their instructors: Huxley was presumably referring to Tyndall’s lecture at the LI on the following day; see letter 1040, n.4 .
a paid servant of their worships: the Committee of Managers of the LI.
Little Brayley: the science writer and lecturer Edward William Brayley (1802–70), who served as joint librarian at the LI. The epithet ‘Little’ may have been described here to distinguish him from his father, the late Edward Wedlake Brayley, who wrote on topography and archaeology.
the most heretical Syllabus: Beginning on 8 February 1855, Huxley delivered a series of six weekly lectures on ‘The General Laws of Life’ at the LI: see ‘London Institution. Syllabus for a Course of Six Lectures on “The General Laws of Life,” February to March 1855’ (T. H. Huxley Manuscripts, Imperial College, London: HM 3:122.7). See also the Athenæum (14 October 1854), p. 1221.
hear you tomorrow: Tyndall’s lecture at the LI; see letter 1040, n. 4.
the Royal: the RS.
come and breakfast on Sunday morning: It would appear that Tyndall did not breakfast with Huxley on Sunday, 18 February, although he met Huxley the previous evening at the home of the geologist Andrew Crombie Ramsay (Journal, RI MS JT/2/13c/729).
Please cite as “Tyndall1043,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on