9th June 1856
My dear Tom
My lectures are not yet finished: my last lecture1 will be given on Thursday next. Faraday’s concluding lecture2 takes place on Friday and before Saturday or Sunday it will be impossible for me to move – I thought you intended remaining until the Concert week.3 I quite hoped to meet you and talk with you at Queenwood. but perhaps it will do equally well here. Remember that a little reflection on your future movements may eventually be a saving of time. Francis and I have had a long conversation about you,4 and he knowing the continent so well is able to give much useful advice; but it is needless for me to dwell on this – you will I doubt not take your measures with due deliberation. Poor Francis: as we talked of you yesterday he almost wept.5 The more I see of him the more I admire his sincere, warm nature. ‘If the thing could be transferred to myself’ he said ‘I would bear it for Tom’s sake, and this is more founded on my instincts regarding Tom than on any thing thing I absolutely know concerning him.’ I am very weary & very confused this morning. Another misfortune now looms upon me. For Wednesday I have entered into an engagement from which I do not know how to extricate myself.6 I wish I had known your intentions & I would have gone to see you yesterday. Can you not come up on Thursday? I shall then have thrown my great weight of my shoulders and we can have an evening together. I would ask Francis to meet you, and he I am sure could give you many valuable hints regarding climate, cost of living and other matters. You will get this note tomorrow morn[in]g just send me a line by return stating what your decision is. I put 50 pounds in bank a few days ago – if you need money they are at your service; and any you may need on the Continent I shall be able to send to you. Your proposal regarding Haughton7 I think a very good one, and I will write to him as you suggest: Give my loving remembrance to Anna when you write.
Ever | John
RI MS JT/1/T/625
my last lecture: Tyndall’s final lecture on light on 12 June 1856.
Faraday’s concluding lecture: ‘On M. Petitjean’s Process for Silvering Glass’, delivered on 13 June 1856 and published in Roy. Inst. Proc., 2 (1854–8), pp. 308–12.
until the Concert week: Hirst had abandoned Queenwood on 11 June, such was his concern to join his sick wife in Ireland.
Francis and I … about you: The conversation took place during a weekend hike through the Chiltern Hills from Tring (Hertfordshire) to Windsor on 7–8 June (RI MS JT/2/13c/848).
he almost wept: Francis was upset that Hirst had had to abandon his teaching career to look after his dying wife, Anna.
I do not know how to extricate myself: Tyndall had been invited to the Lord Mayor of London’s banquet at the Mansion House on Wednesday 11 June (RI MS JT/2/13c/ 848).
Haughton: In letter 1244, Hirst asked Tyndall for a formal introduction to Haughton so that while he was in Ireland with his ailing wife, he might ask Haughton’s advice regarding someone to replace him as a mathematics teacher at Queenwood. However, when he called on Haughton at Trinity College Dublin on 29 June he found Haughton had gone to London (RI MS JT/2/32c/1203).
Please cite as “Tyndall1238,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on