25th July 1861
My dear Mr. Cooper,
It was quite a pleasure to me to receive your note & to be informed by it that Mrs. Cooper2 and yourself had not forgotten me. Unfortunately, I have an examination on Saturday one on Monday & a final one on Tuesday.3 Like a heathen I must employ Sunday in looking over the papers of my Saturday’s exam; as I must get off to Switzerland on Wednesday morning.4 Indeed, yours is the third invitation which has converged on Sunday next.5
Were it not so near the moment of my departure, and had I not my hands so very full it would give me real pleasure to join you at your country residence.6
Believe me | yours most truly | John Tyndall
RI Uncatalogued, box 864.
William White Cooper: William White Cooper (1816–86), appointed surgeon-oculist in ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1859.
Mrs Cooper: Mary Elizabeth (b. 1823/4), daughter of Samuel Poyser of Derby, married William on 9 December 1845 (ODNB). The Coopers often invited Tyndall to dine, and had introduced him to Richard Owen (Journal, 10 February 1855, RI JT/2/13c/727). According to Sir D’Arcy Power, William White Cooper was the last medical man to fight a duel, though the details of the duel are unknown (see , accessed 29 May 2017).
an examination on Saturday one on Monday & a final one on Tuesday: i.e. 27, 29 and 30 July. It is not clear what these were. Tyndall had examined at Chelsea Hospital on 22 June (Journal, RI MS JT/2/13c/1219) presumably for the Commissioners of Council of Military Education but he was also examining for University of London at the time.
I must get off to Switzerland on Wednesday morning: Tyndall left on Wednesday 31 July.
the third invitation which has converged on Sunday next: it is not known what the other two were.
your country residence: the 1871 Census shows the White Coopers at Fern Acres Cottage, Fulmer, Eton, Buckinghamshire.
Please cite as “Tyndall1801,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on