June 25 1856
My dear Tom
I have just time to send you the enclosed,1 and to say little of any thing else. When I have an opportunity of laying my thoughts before you I am sure you will by no means counsel my going to Queenwood. It would be a terrible invasion of my time & thoughts. If they2 thought it worth while and would pay my fare I should not mind attending their Saturday Conference3 say once a fortnight, but more than this I could not promise today. I am going to run away from Town today & to have a week’s real idleness4 – I am very weak and need this rest.
Dubois5 has sent you a beautiful lithograph of himself, it came to Bence Jones in company with one to Mr Faraday and another to me.
ever yours aff[ectionate]l[y] | John | 25th June 1856
RI MS JT/1/T/629
the enclosed: enclosure missing; probably the lithograph of Du Bois-Reymond mentioned.
they: the Edmondsons and teachers at Queenwood.
Saturday Conference: presumably a weekly meeting of Queenwood staff to discuss pupils’ progress and other matters.
a week’s real idleness: Tyndall joined the Wrights for a walking holiday in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that lasted from 25 June to 2 July 1856. He described much of it in verse in his Journal (RI MS JT/2/13c/850–61).
Dubois: Emil Du Bois-Reymond. The lithograph has not been found in the RI collections.
Please cite as “Tyndall1247,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on