Hitcham Rectory | Bildestone | Suffolk | Sunday
My dear Friend
Thank you many times for the gratification you have procured for me, in sending me Dr Grailich’s2 letter,3 and the little dedication to yourself, both of which have given me very much pleasure, the latter especially more than I can say. That made me much prouder than all Dr G’s hyperbole, which you suggested might have that result. Don’t be displeased, I could not help writing it. You once spoke to me of Mr Hirst, and I remembered what you had said as soon as I saw the signature; guessing it to be the same person.
Woman-like, of course I read the last part of Dr Grailich’s letter first! and was certainly extremely amused by it. Nevertheless, it is very pleasant to find oneself borne in mind by those one likes. When you write to him, pray tell him that I look back to my Vienna visit with the greatest pleasure: it will be very long before I forget the enjoyment of the ten days spent there, or the kindness and hospitality shown us by kind friends there.
I am very glad the Spirits4 were baffled by you: it is extremely satisfactory— nevertheless I think they must have bungled, for I do not think you could have hindered the proceedings of a first rate conjurer! M. Robin,5 for instance. I give them great credit for the happy hit they have made in naming you, though—it is the best thing I ever heard of them! Surely some one must have been hovering invisibly near the flame of gas on the previous Thursday?6 Possibly even, it might have been his voice you heard—that of the Fire-King,7 or one of his ministers! I should have liked much to have been present, But I look forward, trusting you will some day show me the experiment—will you not? Anne8 was as much amused as I was—it sounds so very strange. I always think of you on the Thursday afterwards, and hope you are well enough not to find the lecture a burden—I am very sorry to hear of your having been ill, and shall rejoice heartily to know that you are freed from London smoke and work, and can escape to the pure mountain air of Chamounix9—I do not fear your rencontre with Prof. Forbes;10 and should not wonder at your ending by working amicably together, and giving to the world the result of your investigations, with the substitution of the name of Forbes for that of Huxley.
If you would like to know somewhat more of M. de la Rive’s letter11, than you seem to have made out for yourself, pray send it me—I shall greatly enjoy the deciphering of it—that sort of enigma is precisely the sort of thing in which I take delight—it somehow seems to suit my turn of mind.
I saw by the Lit. Gaz.12 that Dr Frankland is lecturing at the Royal Institution;13 pray remember me very kindly to him—I am sorry I shall not have the pleasure of seeing him.
I find this hot weather very trying—what must it be in London! To the fact of my not being very well to day you must attribute my bad writing; it is difficult to guide one’s pen properly when lying on the sofa.
Ever yours sincerely | Frances H. Hooker.
Were you at the Royal Society the evening Mr J. Thomson14 read a paper ‘On the Plasticity of Ice’?15 if so tell me whether it was worth anything, and whether it was for or against your theory.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/8/2548–8a
LT Typescript Only
[10 or 17 May 1857]: the date is given based on the reference to James Thomson’s paper being read to the RS by William Thomson on 7 May 1857 (see n. 14), a visit with a spiritualist on 8 May 1857 (see n. 4), Edward Frankland’s lectures on ‘Graphic and Plastic Arts’ from 25 April to 6 June 1857, 23 May being the specific mention here (see n. 12), and Tyndall’s after Easter lectures on ‘Sound’ on Thursdays from 23 April to 11 June 1857. As this letter was written on a Thursday, it could be 10 or 17 May.
Dr. Grailich’s: perhaps Wilhelm Josef Grailich (1829–59), an Austrian physicist and crystallographer who taught at the University of Vienna (ADB).
letter: see letter 1290, Wilhelm Grailich to John Tyndall, 26 October 1856, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 5.
the Spirits: a reference to Tyndall’s visit, with Latimer Clark, to the spiritualist Camilla Dufour Crosland on 8 May 1857 (see letter 1390).
M. Robin: Henrik Joseph Donckel (1811–74), a Dutch illusionist who went by the name Henri Robin. During the 1850s he performed in England, including at Windsor Castler before Queen Victoria. See L. Senelick, ‘Robin, Henri’, in M. Banham (ed.), The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 928.
the previous Thursday: Tyndall’s after-Easter lectures on sound, on Thursdays. See letter 1308, n. 7.
Fire-King: possibly a reference to Ivan Chabert (1792–1859), who called himself the Fire King, an illusionist who swallowed poisons, boiling oil, and molten lead.
Anne: Anne Henslow Barnard (1833–99), botanical illustrator, youngest daughter of John Stevens Henslow, and sister of Frances Hooker (née Henslow).
Chamounix: see letter 1353, n. 9.
Prof. Forbes: James Forbes.
M. de la Rive’s letter: probably letter 1378, dated 18 April 1857.
Lit. Gaz.: The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, a British literary magazine from 1817–63.
Dr. Frankland is lecturing at the Royal Institution: in 1857, Frankland gave a series of seven Saturday lectures at the RI on the ‘Relations of Chemistry to Graphic and Plastic Art’, which began on 25 April and ran through 6 June 1857, with 23 May being the specific mention here. See RI Guard Book, vol. 2, p. 99, and Russell, Edward Frankland, p. 187.
Mr J. Thomson: James Thomson.
‘On the Plasticity of Ice’: J. Thomson, ‘On the Plasticity of Ice, as Manifested in Glaciers’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 8 (1857), pp. 455–8. Read to the RS by his brother William Thomson on 7 May 1857. Thomson further discussed his theory of glacial motion in a second paper of 1859, ‘On Recent Theories and Experiments Regarding Ice at or near Its Melting-Point’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 10 (1859), pp. 151–160. Tyndall discussed Thomson’s papers in his Glaciers of the Alps, pp. 340–5.
Please cite as “Tyndall1396,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on