Royal Institution. Tuesday night
My dear Frankland
Thank you for Mr Greenwood’s note.2 The lines from Wordsworth are truly beautiful, and I believe refer to the phenomenon in question. It is curious to remark how the ‘sense’ of men differ as regards their appreciation of an imaginative expression. I was struck many years ago with the physical truth of the couplet from Emerson3 which I have placed at the head of the chapter to which you refer; and until my manner of viewing the phenomena of light alters, my opinion and appreciation are likely to remain as they were.
If it were only Mrs Frankland’s invitation with which I had to deal the question would be promptly solved. But I have been compelled to decline invitations from Lady Holland,4 from Mrs Pollock, from Mrs Hamilton.5 This evening I know I am expected near Portman Square but I cannot go. I have card from Mrs Playfair,6 letter from Mrs Cardwell;7 so that my only safety consists in shutting myself up; for it would entirely break me down to attempt to respond to my friends. The two soirées of the Duchess of Northumberland8 I have allowed to pass without attending—and I shall not be able to attend our president’s9 soiree on Saturday. In fact my head requires the greatest care and Dr Bence Jones has strictly enjoined me to be perfectly quiet. Mrs Frankland will I trust see the difficulty of my position and forgive me accordingly.
Yours ever | John Tyndall
The Austrians seem disposed to allow the salt to run into water—I shall have another trial one of these days.
I have just written declining an invitation from Lady Millicent10 for Friday.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/12/3970
[23 May 1862]: date added, probably by LT. 23 May was a Friday and the letter indicates Tuesday night. Late May, however, does make sense of reference to Mountaineering in 1861 (published 16 April 1862). See n. 3.
Greenwood’s note: probably journalist and editor Frederick Greenwood (1830–1909) (ODNB).
couplet from Emerson: see chapter IX, Mountaineering in 1861.
Lady Holland: Mary Augusta Fox, Lady Holland (1812–89), formerly wife of Henry Edward Fox (1802–59), daughter of the seventh earl of Coventry and political hostess.
Mrs Hamilton: not identified.
Mrs Playfair: Jean Ann Playfair née Millington (d. 1877), wife of Lyon Playfair.
Mrs Cardwell: Anne (Annie) Cardwell, née Parker (d. 1887), wife of Edward Cardwell (1813–1886).
Duchess of Northumberland: Eleanor Percy, née Lady Eleanor Grosvenor (1820–1911).
our President’s: Probably referring to the President of the RS, Edward Sabine.
Lady Millicent: Lady Millicent Jones, née Acheson (d. 1887), married to Henry Bence Jones, Secretary of the RI.
Please cite as “Tyndall1899,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on