Broughton1 | July 24th 1859
My dear John
Wright’s2 bright little boy3 entered my room this morning and awoke me by presenting your letter. I read Schell’s little note4 with great pleasure and no little surprise. It was a graceful act on the part of our old friends and tutors at Marburg to elect us members of their Society.5 We may accept the act as expressive of their approval of the use we have made of the knowledge which they imparted to us.6 Schell mentions having sent me a mathematical memoir7 if you could send me it together with the diploma8 I should like to look at both. If you can do so by return of post I shall still be here but on Wednesday I leave for Bristol (19 Small Street)9 I am enjoying my visit at Broughton greatly after being tossed about for three years it is almost like coming home.10 It is true that every object around me still awakens memories which though sad enough to dwell upon and still such as I do not wish entirely to escape from.11 I can now look back upon the bright position of my life which was spent here with a sort of subdued & chastened pleasure & without danger of paralyzing my future action with vain regrets. In short that happy day dream12 is beginning to lose its undue prominence and to reveal to me its meaning and true value. I would gladly remain here longer for I enjoy perfect liberty and can use any day as I think best, but I must hasten on and get all my necessary visits paid so that I may settle down once more to solid work. I find Mrs Wright13 looking better and younger than she did three years ago. She is the same gentle graceful wife she always was contented with her work and her home and hallowing both as true women only can. I know not why but sometimes the tears rise in my eyes as I watched her nursing her baby and playing with her boy. The three are so perfectly harmonious so beautiful.
I have thought frequently about you since I came and of our conversation on the last three evenings. I am still utterly at a loss how to account for what has happened to you or what to say about it. 14 I should like much to know Faraday’s reply for the more I think of it the more I am convinced you have done well to place all in his hands. You will write to me again before you leave for Switzerland will you not?
The post is just leaving, good bye dear John; run away soon to your favourite mountains and come back to me strong & healthy.
Yours affectionately | T A Hirst
RI MS JT/1/H/224
Broughton: Hirst travelled to Broughton, a village close to Queenwood College, to visit Richard Wright (see n. 2) and his family.
Wright’s: Richard Sears Wright (1829–92), mathematician and teacher at Queenwood College between 1851 and 1863. The name of his wife is not identified. In this period, Richard and his wife had two surviving children, Frances Mary Wright and Henry Wright.
Wright’s bright little boy: refers to Henry Wright.
I read Schell’s little note: Note missing. Hirst recorded receipt of Schell’s note through Tyndall’s letter in his journal, noting that it informed him and Tyndall about their election as honorary members of the Marburg. See also letter 1629, n. 4.
to elect us members of their Society: see letter 1629.
the knowledge which they imparted to us: both Hirst and Tyndall studied in Marburg, see also letter 1629, n. 3.
Schell mentions having sent me a mathematical memoir: letter missing.
the diploma: see n. 3 and 4.
I leave for Bristol (19 Small Street): Hirst was visiting his elder brother, the architect John Henry Hirst (1826–82) at his family home in Bristol.
after being tossed about for three years it is almost like coming home: Hirst was referring to the time he spent teaching at Queenwood College, which was near the village of Broughton.
I do not wish entirely to escape from: Hirst resigned from Queenwood in 1856 when his late wife Anna became ill. Anna passed away in 1857.
that happy day dream: In his journal entry for 22 July 1859, Hirst wrote ‘As I look on them sometimes seated in their garden with Henry playing around them I remember old times when the same sight awakened in me the desire to be like them and also I remember too how harshly cruelly I have been taught that their lot was not to be mine’. (Hirst Journal, RI MS JT/2/32c/1495).
Mrs Wright: see n. 2.
about it: presumably this refers to Faraday intervening in the fallout from Tyndall’s relationship with Mary Drummond, to manage the rumors spread by her mother Maria Drummond. See also letters 1597, 1604, and 1631.
Please cite as “Tyndall1630,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on