11th May 1862
My dear Mrs Pollock.
An enemy goes & sows tares in his neighbour’s wheat & walks off:1 but a friend writes in the Library column of the Field.2 I thought at first it might have been you—or Mr Pollock, but I cannot quite read either of you between the lines. Certainly this is one of the pleasantest notices of my little book3 that has been written, and the simple reason is that the writer, whoever he is, possesses the very qualities which he ascribes to me. He is a gentleman and of polished & symmetrical intellect. Our Hall porter must have smelt the odour of the thing while cutting up the paper—and he thrust it into my hands as I passed through yesterday.
My head I am sorry to say is not quite so well as it might be at present, as I experience in a small way those symptoms which troubled me so much two years ago4—brought on now by one day’s unwise work.
I have been long engaged to dine with Mrs Hamilton5 on Thursday, otherwise I should attend your summons early. I do not know whether I can get away sufficiently early to join you, but if I can I will.
Yours ever truly | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/1138
An enemy goes & sows tares in his neighbour’s wheat & walks off: biblical quotation from Matthew 13:25.
Library column of The Field: Reference to The Field, the Farm, the Garden, the Country Gentleman’s Newspaper. Review not identified.
my little book: Mountaineering in 1861.
those symptoms which troubled me so much two years ago: see letter 1606 for allusion to this.
Mrs Hamilton: not identified.
Please cite as “Tyndall1894,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on