The Athenaeum1 | 28 Feb. 1863.
My dear Mrs. Lubbock,
No doubt you have been already informed of the success of last night’s lecture,2 but probably your husband3 will not tell how successful it was. The style throughout was clear & straightforward & the winding up admirable.
I could number on my finger ends the lectures which have been equally successful during the ten years of my connexion with the Royal Institution. Not more than three or four have been equally well received. At the conclusion there was a loud & long continued outburst of applause; this subsided, but the feelings of those present had not quite discharged themselves, & like what we call the residual discharge of electricity, a second general rumble occurred. I am quite persuaded that were the opinions of the audience polled, the universal feeling would be that Mrs. Lubbock has a right to be proud of her husband, Johnny4 of his father, & Lady Lubbock5 of her son.
As for me, who it must not be forgotten, stirred up his mind for this performance, I feel quite bright by the reflected radiance. I am like a little glass bead silvered within & set in the sunshine complacently radiating from a little reflected sun pictured on my own surface. With this very pretty figure I leave you to muse pleasantly, as of course, every wife does, on the solid triumphs achieved by my friend, her husband.
Believe me | Always Yours | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/T/1044
The Athenaeum: see letter 1907, n. 7
last night’s lecture: see letter 1945, n. 2.
your husband: John Lubbock.
Johnny: John Birkbeck Lubbock (1858–1929), eldest son of John and Ellen Lubbock (R. Birkbeck, Notes on the History and Genealogy of the Family of Lubbock (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1891), p. 36). Later he would inherit the family banking business and run it until 1914.
Lady Lubbock: Harriet Caroline Lubbock (née Hotham, 1810–73), wife of John William Lubbock (1803–65, married in 1833) and mother of John Lubbock (R. Birkbeck, Notes on the History and Genealogy of the Family of Lubbock, p. 35).
Please cite as “Tyndall1975,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on