Neckinger Mills1 Bermondsey | London, 15th Dec. 1855
My dear Tyndall,
I have just put a cigar in my mouth that I may sit down at ease and have a chat with you.
I retain Hirst’s note2 – It is delightful to see two friends so familiar and yet so earnest that either can set to and canvass each other’s weak points as though they were his own – I can’t say that I have ever felt any thing in the tone of your conversation or argument to try the temper. this may be special with me because I feel that when we talk on scientific subjects I am but an explorer where you are familiar with all the tracks and landmarks, and I naturally defer to your opinion though I raise an objection out of a spirit of fun and for conversation – one better informed or more confident in his own opinion might possibly feel your mode of argumentation differently, but I cannot think it is a fault that has grown in you to any great excess and a little timely attention may easily set it right. Conversation is a delightful gift and tis well to aim at perfection in so charming an art. No one is so humble but that something may be learned from him and no one so intelligent but that he may be pleased with the mode in which a thought is communicated. It is a pity that Hirst does not give vent to his imaginings through that modest voice of his, but he seems preeminently the man of reflection and the writer and perhaps we should be jealous if he had more gifts in the same degree. However I am sure I don’t half know him yet, a few amiable traits have come to me but I don’t like him the less because there is so much to explore. To me he is like a country full of mountains and defiles3 that would take a life to exhaust.
Can you spend Xmas day with us?4 we shall dine as usual on turkey and plum pudding without any stranger to partake of the hospitable meal, save in the kitchen where I understand there will be posse of old retainers.
Mrs Bevington5 bid me ask you to come but as I know you have many older friends and acquaintances and may have already appropriated the day I shall not calculate upon you till I hear.
Geoffrey6 came home last night, overdone with cold and travelling. He kept his bed to-day but I hope will be himself again in a day or two.
I read aloud the essay7 on the labours and writings of Faraday. It is a work of love well performed but I do not agree with the conclusion – The State in my view should confine itself to the preservation of its own and to the life of its own and to the life of its members – all the rest should be left to individuals and voluntary associations.
But I know my views are peculiar and perhaps not tenable as I would limit the guardianship of property by the State even more than people are now inclined. For instance I would cut away the patent laws and abolish much that has been done recently in protecting authors and copyright8 – I think we should have a far better set of writers without copyright and turn to the right9 about many a compiler to a more useful occupation. I don’t find any trace of these laws in the writings of Moses and even in reference to the produce of labour he had some liberalities unknown to our laws10 – In his country a stranger might pluck the ripe grape and eat his fill, so long as he refrained from pocketing.11
After this long yarn I will wish you a merry Xmas and say farewell my good fellow | J.B. Bevington.
RI MS JT/1/1/151
LT Typescript Only
Neckinger Mills: The river Neckinger, which rises in Southwark and drains into the Thames at St Saviour’s Dock. is now one of London’s ‘lost rivers’, having been enclosed during slum clearance in the 20th century. The Neckinger Mills, which were built originally as a paper factory, were transformed into tanneries by the Quaker family of the Bevingtons in 1805. Leather making continued there until the 1950s, when the firm moved to Leicester. (Geoffrey Bevington, Bevington & Sons Ltd 1795-1995, privately printed, Leicester: Bevington & Sons, 1991.)
Hirst’s note: Letter 1163 which Tyndall had evidently sent to Bevington.
defiles: a narrow gorge between mountains.
Xmas day with us: Tyndall accepted this invitation. RI MS JT/2/13c/ 811.
Mrs Bevington: Mary Bevington (1804–73) was born in Ireland. No record of her maiden name or date of marriage has been found (Ancestry).
Geoffrey: Geoffrey Bevington (1839–72), the Bevingtons’ youngest son who had been educated at Queenwood College.
the essay: This was probably Hirst’s review for the Westminster Review. See letter 1162, n. 2.
protecting authors and copyright: The revised Copyright Act of 1842 had increased the protection of authors’ writings from 28 years to 42 years, though in practice authors had copyright for the whole of their lives plus seven years. The Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852 had established a central Patent Office in London.
and turn to the right: sense unclear; possibly a mistranscription by LT.
liberalities unknown to our laws: possibly a reference to keeping the Sabbath, Exodus 20: 8–11.
pluck the ripe grape… refrained from pocketing: a possible reference to Leviticus 23:22.
Please cite as “Tyndall1166,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on