9 Athol Crescent | Tuesday | October 20th.
Right glad indeed was I, dear Dr Tyndall, to see once more your well known hand, and to find that I was still as [1 word illeg] say ‘Tho’ lost to sight, to Memory dear’!2
To think of little me having my health drank3 on the top of the monarch of mountains!4
I shall be quite set up and conceited. I assure you I feel it no small compliment to have been remembered at such a place—and by such a man.
We tried for you with but faint hopes of success, on our way to Germany—and again on our way back—and very disappointed I was not to see you.
I shall be delighted to get a pho:5 it will be a real pleasure to me if good—but a bad likeness I cannot bear (any thing totally unlike is much better) but do pray let me have it, and I will tell you honestly, I can at any moment recall you to my mind’s eye as you really are, and I should not like that memory mixed up with something unpleasant—and what monsters some are!
We spent 3 weeks at Homburg.6 my brother7 also with us—very enjoyably—and with benefit to our health. I had a vague idea of making my fortune there, in which laudable endeavour, I regularly lost a florin per diem,8 but as I never exceeded that sum, I can hardly come under the category of a ‘professed gambler’! What sums one does see there lost and won!
Your little Swiss box, do you remember it, is at this moment, as always, on my writing table—with its little key and all—quite a conceit!
James Coxe is gazetted Commissioner in Lunacy9—at a salary of £1000 or £1200—for it does not seem very clear which. He had two years intense labour—(I wonder if you would look at his ‘report’ if I sent it you?) gratuitously—and there will still be very hard work, and heavy responsibility. No more skeying10 away to the Continent for us now I fear—we shall be tied by the leg for the future—and worse far, he will have to be a good deal away from home on tours of inspection of Asylums &c. but his heart is in the work—and sure I am he will do it well.
My brother left us yesterday to visit his master11 at Inverness C.12 but we hope to have him back presently, and to keep him till Parliament meets.
Now I hope you will just remember that you are—‘Mortal’—and not do more than a mortal’s work.
Please dont forget my photograph (be sure and pick me out the best) and with both our kindest regards, believe me now and always,
my dear Dr Tyndall | Yours very much | Mary Anne Coxe.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/274
LT Typescript Only
[1857]: the year is given based on mention of Tyndall having toasted Mary Coxe on top of Mont Blanc (see n. 3).
‘Tho’ lost to sight, to Memory dear’: from a song by composer and song writer George Linley (1798–1865), published c. 1848.
having my health drank: on the top of Mont Blanc on 13 August 1857, Tyndall and Hirst toasted to the health of Mary Coxe and other friends. See letter 1419, n. 10.
the monarch of mountains: see letter 1419, n. 7.
pho: a photograph. This portrait of John Tyndall—the frontispiece to this volume—was taken by the London-based Maull & Polyblank (later Maull & Fox), on 21 September 1857 (Journal, JT/2/13c/1034). Tyndall later wrote in his journal on 31 October 1857: ‘Mrs. Coxe, and all other ladies that have seen it speak against my portrait’ (Journal, JT/2/13c/1038); and on 19 March 1858: ‘Joined, after a time, by Miss Drummond, when they all united in abusing my portrait, calling it the most horrid thing in the world, and affirming that they had never seen the Mr Tyndall therein represented’ (Journal, JT/2/13c/1061).
Homburg: a town in Saarland, Germany.
my brother: William Cumming, see letter 1371, n. 6.
florin per diem: a daily allowance of one florin, a British coin worth two shillings. In the context of this letter, it would be the amount that Coxe was gambling per day.
gazetted Commissioner in Lunacy: Coxe was appointed the Commissioner of the General Board of Lunacy for Scotland in 1857.
skeying: to get clear, to sheer off (OED).
his master: possibly George Campbell (1823–1900), eighth Duke of Argyll (ODNB). William Cumming served as Campbell’s physician and travelling companion, and became his private secretary, when Campbell served as Lord Privy Seal under two governments 1853–5 and 1859–60. See ‘W. F. Cumming, M.D. Edin.’, Lancet, 140 (1892), pp. 349–50.
Inverness C: Inveraray Castle, seat of the Duke of Argyll (Tyndall later advised on lightning conductors for the castle). It appears that LT mistranscribed ‘Inveraray’ as ‘Inverness’.
Please cite as “Tyndall1445,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on