Saturday
My dear Mrs. Pollock
I thank you very much for permitting me to send you the proofs:2 what I want you to do for me is, not to correct the proofs, or to give yourself any trouble about verbal inaccuracy; which I shall ferret out myself, but to give me your advice about the style. My aim is to keep my eye closely upon the things which I attempt to describe; still I may be tedious, or bald, or turgid, and if I am any of these I want you to correct me.
I send you two pieces—the Introduction, and a little of the early part of the expedition of 1857.3 I will afterwards send you the narratives of the ascents and a little of the more purely scientific portion—this will enable you to judge of the temper of the thing, and I shall be extremely obliged to you for the “free & fearless utterance of your opinion”—do not spare me in any way: I can bear a terrible amount of plucking.
I have an idea of your present residence—five years ago I met a friend on the Railway platform4 at Conway5 who wished me to go to Llandudno6 to dine with him. But I didn’t go—next day I went up the “foaming flood” of the Conway,7 and had a choice dinner of trout at Llanrwst.8 What a glorious country it is!—I will make myself acquainted with every nook corner & summit in Great Britain and Ireland before I go to the Alps again.
I have lectured four times this week. my audience is far less terrible than that of the R.I.9 20 or 30 students—who I am happy to see feel an interest in what I tell them
—Thank Mr Pollock for his kind & pleasant letter to me.10 Good bye
most truly yours | J. Tyndall
I have not yet broken up the book into sections—intending to wait until it is all printed.
RI MS JT/1/T/1214
RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/1975
This letter has been dated to February 1860, based on when Tyndall gave the School of Mines lectures and mentions of his proofs, probably Glaciers of the Alps.
permitting me to send you the proofs: Tyndall asked Juliet Pollock to read parts of Glaciers of the Alps; see letter 1642.
and a little of the early part of the expedition of 1857: likely refers to what would become chapter 4 of Glaciers of the Alps.
five years ago I met a friend on the Railway platform: Tyndall recorded in his diary for 27 September 1854 that he met a friend named Latham at the railway station in Conway (Journal, RI MS JT/2/13b/692). This was likely the philologist and physician Robert Gordon Latham (1812–88).
Conway: also known as Conwy, a town in Wales.
Llandudno: town by the sea in Wales.
“foaming flood” of the Conway: a reference to a poem ‘The Bard’ by Thomas Gray (1716–71).
Llanrwst: town in the Conwy Valley.
I have lectured four times this week. my audience is far less terrible than that of the R.I.: Tyndall took up teaching at the School of Mines in 1859.
for his kind & pleasant letter to me: letter missing.
Please cite as “Tyndall1684,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on