Neckinger Mills. Bermondsey .| London 20th Feby 1856
My dear John
I shall consider you booked for Wednesday the 27th. A bed will be at your service, but if you should find other engagements so press that you will not be able to enliven us with your Johnsonlike presence,1 then drop a line, we shall know it is not the Vagabondish spirit that we wish to encourage in you that keeps you away but some prude that calls you away in the name of duty or necessity.
The two tickets2 will be as much appreciated as more.
Yesterday, at early noon I was fortunate to be attacked with tooth ache. My wife had provided me with Lewes Life of Goethe 3 & I made it an excuse of sitting over the parlour fire & enjoying this literary treat, notwithstanding my predilections for conversation.
How do you like your present lodgings?4 Perfection is not be met with, but with your moderate requirements, I think you might to shift & change again & again till you find the suitable family.
Hill5 says that Hirst owes him a letter, when you write you must tell him that this worthy disciple of his is pining for be6 of his masters encouragements.
Yours as ever | James Bevington | To | J Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/B/95
Johnsonlike presence: Bevington was comparing Tyndall to Samuel Johnson (1709–84) the lexicographer whose speech and wisdom was made famous by his biographer James Boswell (1740–95).
The two tickets: tickets for a lecture at the RI.
Lewes Life of Goethe: see letter 1170, n. 2.
your present lodgings: Tyndall had moved to South Audley Street, Mayfair on 1 January 1856.
Hill says: Henry Hill; see letter 1035, n. 6.
be: probably a slip of the pen for ‘lack’.
Please cite as “Tyndall1195,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on