Who3 will deny the existence of natural affinity when I tell you, I was in the very act of putting up for you a copy of the boys “Poems” when your welcome letter4 was put into my hands.
Yet such was the fact—First [about] these said “Poems”—you would [yea], die of laughing if you only saw the pride and pleasure the authors take in them! They are both under the hallucination that they are born—poets—and that of the very first water; nothing would serve them but to get them printed for private circulation among their friends (with perhaps the latent hope that there might be a call from the public so vociferous that they would be compelled to yield to the pressure from without.)
Meanwhile they have despatched a copy to—Now just guess—No other than the great Alfred’s self!!!
They had 100 copies thrown off—which cost them £2-7- The printer told them that another 50 would cost very little—as the types are meanwhile suspended!
They are perpetually sending off “tales” to different Magazines which if rejected by one, are straightways despatched to another—and as they are sometimes accepted, (5/. a page has been given by the “Boys Own Magazine” for “Outdone by a Yankee”) On the strength of which they are now busy with “The Man Eater” and the “Confessions of a Murderer”.
They are really fine boys—and take being laughed at in the most perfect good humour.
I am grieved to hear of your broken back,5 but assuredly it did not affect your head, for Mr Heathfield6 told me that you came out with all your wonted vigour, and that your lecture7 was as admirable in manner as in matter. Neither were the “Aqueous (cant spell it) vapours” forgotten—!
The Argyles8 were with us the beginning of this month for a couple of days—and were as ever most charming, from their easy simple happy ways. How wonderfully youthful they are in appearance—and how unlike the parents of 11. children! I wonder when—if ever—you really mean to come to Kinellan.
There is no denying the fact that you are a gay Deceiver—and no mistake and do lead one on from year to year “with promise false and vain”.
The “Struck Eagle” you may be—but the “white–feathers”9 you will never show.
The Spanish proverb will never apply to you—“Who loses money loses much—Who loses friends loses more—Who loses heart loses everything”.
Interrupted.
Very many thanks for your thinking of me—You can think of no one who appreciates the compliment more.
Yours always and | very much | M. A. C.
I would fain have your Carte,10 my book11 is incomplete without it.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/1/270
LT Typescript Only
Mary Anne Coxe: see letter 1944, n. 1.
[1862]: the year is given as this letter is a reply to 1944.
Who: the letter begins without a salutation and thus there many be one or more pages missing.
your welcome letter: letter 1944.
your broken back: see letters 1933, n. 1.
Mr Heathfield: not identified.
your lecture: see letter 1932, n. 6.
The Argyles: George Douglas Campbell, Duke of Argyll (see letter 1944, n. 7), his wife Elizabeth Georgiana Campbell (née Leveson-Gower, 1824–78), Duchess of Argyll and an abolitionist, and their five sons and five daughters (a sixth daughter would be born in 1864) .
The “Struck Eagle” you may be—but the “white–feathers”: see letter 1944, n. 10.
your Carte: Cartes de Visite, a small photographic portrait mounted on a card, 3½ by 2¼ inches (OED). Perhaps Tyndall’s Carte de Visite referred to here is the frontispiece of this volume.
my book: it was fashionable in this period to collect Cartes de Visite of notable persons in a scrap book.
Please cite as “Tyndall1947,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on