Edinbro. Saturday | October 30th. (1858)
You worry me Brutus!2
I did know that an address was useless—We were but three days in London—and your ancient Cerberus3 told us you would be 10 at Queenwood.4 So cui bono5 letting you hunt after us at 39 Jermyn Street—as my vanity whispered you would do—when the birds were flown?6 Methinks I have thee on the hip Master Tyndall!
I knew of your previous where abouts by the very interesting letter in the Times7—(to Professor Faraday) and could have better forgiven your being in foreign parts when we were in London, than to have missed you so narrowly. I feel quite jealous of Queenwood you go there perpetually and never come to us. (there must be metal more attractive there than we wot8 of)
We were three weeks in Paris—our ultima thule9—our chief enjoyment was the dolce far niente10 of lolling back in open carriages driving in the Bois de Boulogne11—No bad pastime I can assure you—What a glorious place Paris is! and what exquisite weather we had. I must tell you a capital joke at the Commissioner’s12 expense—he complained to the Landlord of the ‘Windsor’13 on wishing to change our rooms ‘que les lits étaient trop petits’14 ‘Pardon’, smilingly replied mine Host—‘ce n’est pas les lits qui sont trop petits, c’est monsieur qui est trop grand!!!’15
A clincher, wasn’t it? which made the Commissioner for the nonce16 look very small!
Uncle Willie17 will persist in calling his affection paralysis, though medical men say ‘were it really so he would not be so ready to give it that name’! His brain and spine are utterly untouched, but after sitting 4 hours in a very cramped position—in a small boat fishing—he found on coming to rise, that one leg was completely powerless—at first he laughed and thought it great fun, but when hours and days elapsed with little improvement, he set it down as paralysis—and so he still persists in calling it—though all the medical men—my husband18 among them—declare it to be ‘the rupture of a small blood vessel at the sheath of the nerve’ and that gradually as the blood was absorbed the use of his limb would be restored—though probably not before the expiry of a year would he be altogether right. (his general health of mind and body—absolutely unimpaired) this opinion is quite being borne out by the fact—that whereas he at first could not move without two crutches—he now walks about the room with one stick—and on the street with two. Yet strange to say he himself will scarcely admit that there is any improvement, and still clings to the theory of paralysis—till James and I could sometimes shake him! it is a sort of monomania19 with him—I allege to make himself interesting—And such levee’s of visitors as he used to hold—grave judges of the land, Duchesses—(even the magnificent Grace of Sutherland20) and pretty damsels by the dozen. Could you not make a run down here at Xmas? I do so wish you would. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’,21 says the proverb, and if you dont manage it, I shall know that all the love you profess for me is ‘words—words—mere words’.22
Voila! | Yours as you behave yourself! | M.A.C.
I say Xmas as most likely to be your free time—but any time that the Com.23 is not absent on duty would suit us equally well.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/277
LT Typescript Only
[1858]: the year is given by the reference to Tyndall’s letter to Faraday being published in the Times (see letter 1548).
Brutus: Marcus Junius Brutus, a politician of the late Roman Republic involved in the assassination of Julius Caesar, an act made well-known through William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.
your ancient Cerberus: in Greek and Latin mythology the proper name of the watch-dog which guarded the entrance of the infernal regions, represented as having three heads (OED). Probably a reference to Charles Anderson at the RI.
Queenwood: see letter 1567, n. 3.
cui bono: ‘for whose benefit?’ (Latin), taken popularly but erroneously in English as ‘to what use or good purpose?’ (OED).
the birds were flown: a phrase meaning to have escaped or disappeared.
letter in the Times: see letter 1548.
wot: to know (OED).
ultima thule: the highest or uttermost point or degree attained or attainable, the acme, limit (Latin, OED).
dolce far niente: delightful idleness (Italian, OED).
Bois de Boulogne: a large public park in Paris.
Commissioner’s: Mary’s husband James Coxe was appointed Commissioner of the General Board of Lunacy for Scotland in 1857.
Landlord of the ‘Windsor’: presumably the hotel where the Coxes stayed while in Paris.
‘que les lits étaient trop petits’: ‘because the beds were too small’ (French).
‘ce n’est pas les lits qui sont trop petits, c’est monsieur qui est trop grand!!!’: ‘it is not that the beds are too small, it is the gentleman who is too big!!!’ (French).
for the nonce: for the particular occasion (OED).
Uncle Willie: not identified.
my husband: James Coxe.
monomania: a Victorian category of mental illness characterized by a single pattern of repetitive and intrusive thoughts or actions (OED).
Grace of Sutherland: probably a mistranscription for Her Grace, the Duchess of Sutherland, Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1806–68), a member of Queen Victoria’s household.
‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’: a nineteenth-century revision of the proverb ‘To him that will, ways are not wanting’, meaning that someone who is determined to achieve something can overcome obstacles to that end.
‘words—words—mere words’: W. Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, V.iii.108, Troilus, ‘Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart: | The effect doth operate another way’.
Com.: see n. 12.
Please cite as “Tyndall1568,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on