115 Esplanade, Deal. | Sunday August 30th 1857.
Dear Dr Tyndall,
In truth you are a good considerate creature to write and give me news,1 and good news of Hal.2 I am very sorry that you and Mr Hirst were compelled to leave, especially too, owing to a financial crisis.3 The guide who offered to lend you twenty pounds was a marvel, but then like every-one else he saw through you at once, and as you remark knew you would pay him. Don’t vaunt of carrying your heart in your face, but seek to keep it in its proper concealment. Besides honesty after all is the commonest of virtues and so interested that even at the earliest age we are taught that ‘Honesty is the best policy’
After that I will bestow a little praise on you for your kind care and thought of my dear husband, who told me all about it. He must have sadly regretted staying behind at the Grands Mulets,4 and I appreciate his thoughtfulness for ‘those at home’ the more because I know how his wishes urged him to proceed. How anxious he must have been at your prolonged absence. To have gained the summit of Mont Blanc,5 in the face of such hindrances as you had, was triumphant and I think you must have enjoyed it the more for the difficulty. See what you gain by being a bachelor. No vision of a wife to restrain you from glory—or a snowy burial.
This morning I had a letter from Hal from Courmayeur6 dated last Sunday. He and old Simond7 were enjoying their tour, the latter I fear must be a usurer,8 for he wants sadly to lend the husband 500 francs. They were only 6 hrs 40 min going from Chamounix9 to Mont Bourraud10 and from thence to Courmayeur nine, rather a different account from Murray’s.11 I calculated that by Thursday, or Friday at the latest, Hal would be again at Chamounix and consequently might be home by the 1st September.12 It is a promise that he is to come here and pick us up on returning. I and the boy have been here a fortnight with my father and mother.13 The sea breezes are delicious and have quite restored Noel14 to health who was very ill and thin when we left London. If I can I will get Hal to stay a week and rest after his journey. You are wise to stay in the country. London as you say would be too hot for your health just now. You must excuse this bit of crossing and allow me to sign myself
Most sincerely yours | Henrietta Huxley.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/9/2879
LT Typescript Only
to write and give me news: letter missing.
Hal: nickname for Thomas Huxley.
I am very sorry that you and Mr Hirst… owing to a financial crisis: Thomas Huxley had joined Hirst and Tyndall in the Alps from 10–22 August to summit Mont Blanc, though he did not make the summit (Journal, JT/2/13c/1002, 1030). Before departing, Tyndall realized that he and Hirst did not have sufficient funds to pay their guide Simond, who offered to loan Tyndall five hundred francs (Journal, JT/2/13c/1030). Huxley returned to London by 3 September (see L. Huxley (ed.), Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, 2 vols (London: Macmillan and Co., 1900), vol. 1, p. 146).
Grands Mulets: see letter 1419, n. 9.
Mont Blanc: see letter 1320, n. 6.
Courmayeur: an Italian town at the foot of the south side of Mont Blanc.
old Simond: Edouard Simond.
userer: a money-lender, esp. in later use one who charges an excessive rate of interest (OED).
Chamounix: see letter 1353, n. 9.
Mont Bourraud: LT must have mistyped Nant Bourant, now Nant Borrant, an alpine hut.
Murray’s: J. Murray, A Handbook for Travellers in Switzerland, and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont, 7th edn (London: John Murray, 1856), pp. 367–71. Murray gives the time to travel from Chamonix to Courmayeur as a three day journey of seven, nine, and eight hours each day, stating: ‘A stout walker may accomplish this route in two long days, sleeping at Nant Bourant or the châlets of Mont Joie’.
might be home by the 1st September: Huxley returned to London by 3 September (see Huxley (ed.), Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, vol. 1, p. 146).
my father and mother: Henry and Sarah Heathorn.
Noel: Noel Huxley (1856–60), Thomas Huxley’s first son, who died at almost four years old on 14 September 1860 from scarlet fever, was born on 31 December 1856. See A. Desmond, Huxley: From Devil’s Disciple to Evolution’s High Priest (Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1994), pp. 286–8.
Please cite as “Tyndall1426,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on