London Sunday night
My dear Tom
You may be in London for ought I know though you are hidden from me. Mrs Whitehouse tells me that you were here on Friday evening – had I known of your probable presence we might have contrived to meet each other – I left Paris on Saturday morning and reached London last night. I have come over thus suddenly to attend a conference to be held at King’s College on Monday regarding these examinations.1 I wrote to you from Paris but you probably had not received my letter when you came here on Friday – I find London altogether a quiet place after leaving the noise of Paris. My time there was very pleasantly spent. Wartmann and myself rambled together almost every evening and spent our time very agreeably. With one day’s exception due to cold from wet feet my health was very good – The stock I laid in in Normandy lasted me throughout. I have as yet seen nobody here. Of John Martin I saw very little in Paris2 – I called upon him several times soon after my arrival there but somehow or other the link between us broke – my time did not suit him or his did not suit me and so each of us pursued his own track. I managed to round off my work so as to leave Paris with a clear conscience. I may go back again but I hope I shall not be required. One week’s ramble in the country would be of great value to me now. It would shake the rumble of cabs and omnibuses from my brain and dispel all thoughts of the comparative merits of the electric telegraph of England and Prussia.3 Had I desired high life and loved to rub myself against great people I could not have been better situated than at Paris. I like to look at such people and to observe their manners and habits as a matter of instruction, but these once learned I recoil upon my old self and would not give up my own life for that of the best of them. You guessed aright regarding Hector’s letter.4 I will send it to you in a day or two – It is a remarkable document and reveals a state of mind which I should like to see altered but which it is very difficult to attack – The man’s knowledge in fact swamps his faith and renders his life dry and unhappy. Give my love to Anna – She would have been in the third Heaven looking at the shawls, muslins & jewels of the exhibition.5
Your affectionate John
RI MS JT/1/T/915
a conference … examinations: see letters 1107 and 1108.
Of John Martin … Paris: see letter 1027, n. 8.
the comparative merits of the electric telegraph of England and Prussia: one of tasks facing the jurors at the Exposition Universelle.
Hector’s letter: letter 1099, which was mentioned in missing letters between Tyndall and Hirst.
shawls, muslins & jewels: The Exposition Universelle included classes devoted to ‘Goldsmiths’ Work, Jewellery, and Bronzes’ (Class XVII), ‘Cotton Printing and Dyeing’ (Class XIX), ‘Woollen and Worsted Manufactures’ (Class XX) and ‘Silk’ (Class XXI).
Please cite as “Tyndall1112,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on