Biarrits.1 | August 2nd, 1856
My dear John,
At length our long journey is finished2 and we have arrived safely at our destination. We started from Broughton yesterday week,3 arrived in Paris on the Saturday afternoon, rested there until Monday, when we travelled as far as Orleans. After remaining there 30 hours we continued our journey and stopped the next night at Tours. From Tours we went to Bordeaux, where we halted again for 24 hours, and lastly we travelled to Bayonne, and reached Biarrits, which is only 5 miles distant, on Thursday evening last.4 By means of these short stages Anna has borne the journey wonderfully well. From beginning to end the weather has been magnificent, with the exception of a thunderstorm in Paris. I do not know the temperature here, but it must be very high, for from morning to night I am always bathed in perspiration. I have thrown off drawers and flannel and by and bye I shall cease wearing a shirt I think. The greatest luxury I have is a bath every morning at 6 in this glorious bay of Biscay.5 At present it is exceedingly calm and yet the waves, as they break into foam on the beautiful beach, are larger and stronger than I have ever seen them in England. What they will be in a storm I can scarcely imagine. I am greatly disappointed to find Biarrits a very expensive place. After great trouble I failed to find lodgings in the village that were cheap enough for us. For a single room with two small beds in it they wanted 5 francs a day (this of course includes attendance) and would not take less even if we promised to remain for six months. At length about a mile from Biarrits I met with two small rooms, adjoining one another, and having a bed in each, for 4 francs a day and these we have concluded to take. The situation is certainly beautiful and superior to any in the village of Biarrits. It is at the top of a cliff overhanging the bay, and from our windows we have a magnificent view of the bay at the feet of the Pyrenees.6 But only fancy 23s/4d a week for two small rooms and attendance, and yours which are far superior only cost 17s. Nevertheless I think I shall be able to live on £150 a year.
Immediately on our arrival we sought out the best physician and I got him to examine Anna. His opinion coincides precisely with that of all the other physicians we have consulted. He thinks Biarrits will be of some service to her, and that Pau7 will be the best place to winter at. I consulted him thus early in order to have his opinion of the progress Anna makes. He appears to be a very decent fellow and has already been of great service to us in finding lodgings. When I found them so expensive I went to him and told him frankly what income I had, and that I wished to procure for my wife the best of everything that such an income could afford. He was evidently pleased with this frankness and we understood each other better on account of it. He made a few calculations and then recommended us to go to the place I have described. At present we are still at the hotel our lodgings will be ready to receive us tomorrow and then the doctor is to submit Anna to some new kind of treatment the precise nature of which I do not yet know, but I trust it will be beneficial. Please send this letter to Wright; when I have ascertained more about money matters I will write to him. Meantime should he or you have occasion to write please address Poste Restante,8 Biarrits. If Francis would send my journals9 here I should be obliged to him. Remember me kindly to him please, and tell him of our safe arrival. I wish too you would let me know the result of your letter to Roby Pridie.10 Remember me kindly to Debus when you see him and accept our kind love. Mr & Mrs Wright I hope will do the same.
Yours affectionately, | T.A. Hirst
What about Wynne?11
RI MS JT/1/H/227
Biarrits: Biarritz, a resort in the Bay of Biscay on the west coast of southern France. Hirst spells it Biarrits (as pronounced) throughout the letter.
our long journey is finished: Hirst was taking his wife to Biarritz in the hope of curing her tuberculosis. He provided a detailed account of the journey to Spain in his Journal 27 July and August (RI MS JT/32c/1214–17).
yesterday week: Friday 25 July 1856.
Thursday evening last: 31 July 1856.
bay of Biscay: The stretch of Atlantic ocean from Brest in north–west France to Cabo de Perias in the north–west of Spain.
the Pyrenees: The mountainous range that forms the border between France and Spain and extends from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea.
Pau: a French town 60 miles from the Atlantic coast and 30 miles from the Spanish border. It had become a popular winter resort for Victorian tourists.
Poste Restante: post remaining (French); an international arrangement whereby travellers could collect their post from a town’s central post office.
send my journals: monthly copies of the Phil. Mag. to which Hirst presumably subscribed.
Roby Pridie: William Robert Pridie (1825–74), the son of an Independent Minister in Halifax who was a close friend of Hirst’s. He spent his life as a humble bank clerk in Halifax. Hirst’s other Halifax friend, the dyer’s clerk, Francis Booth (1826–53), had died on 13 March 1853 and Hirst had promised to support his widowed mother Sarah Booth with an annuity. When Hirst left Queenwood he could no longer afford to support Mrs Booth and Tyndall had volunteered to pay the annuity. This arrangement continued until November 1856 when Mrs Booth died. See the letter from Pridie to Tyndall, 8 November 1856, in volume 6 (RI MS JT/1/P/258).
What about Wynne?: Hirst was asking whether Eddy Wynne had passed the Woolwich entrance examinations. He had not.
Please cite as “Tyndall1267,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on