18th Feb 1862
My dear Mrs. Pollock
It was very kind of you to come & see me, and your presence would have been a pleasure to me—Possibly I had adjourned to the Turkish Bath,1 as Tuesday is one of my Turkish days. I wish like you I could get out of town for a day or two. “My head is ne’er out of school”2 and I would gladly escape from my lessons for a little while.
I am writing out my present course of lectures3—nothing like the written lectures has yet appeared and I think the publication of them will do good.
The first proofs of my little Alpine book4 have come to hand: with a little polishing it will read smoothly enough.
I wish you a pleasant time at the Wells: give Moss5 ten kisses for me. As soon as you come back I shall be ready for any amount of W——Y!6
Yours always | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/1135
RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/1980
Adjourned to the Turkish Bath: likely the baths at 74 Jermyn Street.
“My head is ne’er out of school”: From Thomas Hood’s poem ‘A retrospective review’. T. Hood, The Complete Poetical Works (Boston: Phillips, Simpson and Co., 1859), pp. 487–90.
my present course of lectures: Tyndall delivered a course of twelve lectures on heat at the RI, starting 23 January and running to 10 April 1862. These were published as J. Tyndall, Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion, 2nd ed. (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green 1863).
The first proofs of my little Alpine book: Published on 16 April as Mountaineering in 1861.
Moss: Juliet’s youngest son, Maurice Emilius (1857–1932).
W——y!: presumably Whiskey (Irish spelling), a drink Tyndall clearly enjoyed (see letter 1717).
Please cite as “Tyndall1863,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on