| 14 Waverley Place | [London] Thursday
Dear Dr. Tyndall
You repent of your sins in so facetious a melancholy, that I can in no wise attribute to you – the depth of remorse you would have me believe – however we did not wait, for you on Sunday.3 You expressed a doubt about coming and a doubt I have ever found to end in a negative. Consequently ‘the mutton had’ not ‘more than a normal crisp’. Though I never knew before – that crisp, was its normal condition. As I particularly wish this explained will you come and dine with us on Sunday ¼ past 6. Hal wants to talk with you about the Examination papers4 – and moreover you shall see my pretty sister Mrs George Huxley!5
Do you know we are going to Germany this summer? 6 to ruralise in some quiet village which you shall recommend. As you know all about Düsseldorff7 I have just read a long letter from my old schoolmistress,8 who says she is looking forward to seeing me with ‘großer Familiär’9 it being an old promise of Hal’s10 that we should some day revisit my school.11
I shall not want the stinsels till the winter, so you can forget them a little longer, if it’s more convenient to you – but bring ‘Hiawatha’ 12 with you. I cannot give you that copy but we will exchange. Hoping your ‘moral marrowbones’ don’t ache with kneeling so long. I bid you rise pardoned.
Your sincere friend | Henrietta A. Huxley
Hal has been using my pens – which accounts for my unusual bad writing.
RI MS JT/1/9/2876
LT Transcript Only
Henrietta Huxley:Thomas Huxley married Henrietta Anne Heathorn (1825–1915), usually known as ‘Nettie’, at All Saints Church, Finchley Road, London, on Saturday 21 July 1855. Tyndall was not present and first met her at the Huxley’s home in Waverley Place, St John’s Wood, on 28 November 1855 (RI MS JT/2/13c/806).
The letter is undated. However Tyndall records in his Journal that he and Huxley discussed examinations on Sunday 10 February, making the invitation date of Thursday 7 Febuary plausible. The examinations for entry to the Royal Engineers had taken place on 30–-31 January 1856, so both men were engaged in marking scripts.
on Sunday: If Thursday 7 February is the correct date for this letter, it would appear that Tyndall had failed to turn up for dinner the previous Sunday 3 February.
the Examination papers: Huxley had joined Tyndall as an examiner for Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers commissions in October 1855.
Mrs George Huxley: Huxley’s brother George (1824–63), a barrister and businessman, had married Mary (‘Polly’) MacIntyre (b.1827) in 1845. Tyndall first met her at the Huxleys on Tuesday 1 January 1856.
this summer: Tyndall joined the Huxleys in Switzerland in August 1856, both parties having travelled through Germany.
Düsseldorff: A German city lying at the junction of the river Düssel with the Rhine. Tyndall had visited it on his first Rhine journey to Marburg on 22 October 1848 (RI MS JT/2/13c/393).
my old Schoolmistress: not identified. Mrs Huxley had spent two years as a schoolgirl at Neuwied on the Rhine south of Bonn.
Größer Familiär: ‘and your family’ (German).
Hal’s: Nettie Huxley’s nickname for her husband and derived from Henry.
my school: the school at Neuwied.
Hiawatha: The newly-published popular narrative poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha (London: T. Nelson, 1855).
Please cite as “Tyndall1188,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on