59 Montagu Squ. W | Saturday night
What a man you are!
When one has supposed that at your last appearance2 your climax was reached you come out again3 surpassing yourself. What height will you reach at last.
I was not well—but you made me better. I had w. me a beautiful young Lady Augusta Ritchie4 w. whom I wanted to introduce you but your table was deserted when I reached it.
So it must be another time. To day I am going w. people to see the horses at Holborn.5
The performance is said to be first rate.
Your friend | Juliet Pollock
RI MS JT/1/P/218
RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/1929
[5 June 1858]: the date, though uncertain, is given by the reference to Tyndall’s previous two Friday Evening Discourses at the RI.
your last appearance: Tyndall’s previous Friday Evening Discourse at the RI, ‘On Some Physical Properties of Ice’, occurred on 22 January 1858.
come out again: on 4 June 1858, Tyndall gave another Friday Evening Discourse at the RI titled ‘On the Mer-de-Glace’.
Lady Augusta Ritchie: probably Charlotte Augusta Ritchie (1820–78), a cousin of the English writer William Thackeray. See C. Ritchie, A Memoir (London: Spottiswoode & Co., 1879).
the horses at Holborn: possibly a performance at Astley’s Amphitheatre, famous for its equestrian acts. It was located in Lambeth in central London.
Please cite as “Tyndall1526,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on