4th. March 1863
My dear Mrs. Lubbock
I sat down to write to you on Monday and thought I should have more quiet on Tuesday. Tuesday came & now it is Wednesday and thus these good intentions with which a certain place (not to be uttered for the world in your hearing) is paved, are put off from day to the sin, by repeated commission, tending more & more to become perennial.
I am glad that I wrote to Jon1—very glad—though I did not imagine for a moment that he would report as he did.2 I think he must have known that he was drawing it a little strong, when he said that he lectured “very badly”3—Do you know what ‘drawing it strong’ means? Lombard street to an orange4 you don’t. I met my friend Pollock5 yesterday & our conversation for a time was about Lyell’s book.6 Suddenly, spontaneously & without the slightest suggestion on my part he exclaimed—“What a beautiful lecture Lubbock gave us!” Now Pollock is a man whose opinion is not to be despised—A true gentleman, of great learning & highly cultivated taste. “It left nothing to be wished for” he continued—so that my report you see is not a subjective delusion of my own. (Do you know what ‘subjective’ means? Ten to one you don’t)
If I should be fit to appear before Amy7 on the 15th—will run down in the afternoon—All my vigour has filtered away through my hair. I am very tired. I wish I could lie down & sleep for 48 hours at a stretch. Well I must not complain—I cannot have my strength & use it. I will send “John” a copy of my book8 tomorrow—it is now off my hands but it has left its mark behind. Goodbye.
Love to all the children.9 Yours ever. | John Tyndall
BL Add MS 49640, ff. 31–2
that I wrote to Jon: John Lubbock; letter missing.
he would report as he did: letter missing.
lectured “very badly”: see letter 1945, n. 2. In letter 1975, Tyndall wrote to Ellen Lubbock that the lecture was, in fact, excellent.
Lombard street to an orange: a Victorian expression meaning to wager something of great value against something of little value.
my friend Pollock: William Frederick Pollock.
Lyell’s book: C. Lyell, Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (London: John Murray, 1863).
Amy: Amy Harriet Lubbock (1857–1929), eldest daughter of Ellen and John Lubbock (R. Birkbeck, Notes on the History and Genealogy of the Family of Lubbock (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1891), pp. 36).
a copy of my book: Heat as a Mode of Motion.
all the children: at this time, the Lubbock children were Amy Harriet Lubbock (1857–1929), John Birkbeck Lubbock (1858–1929), Constance Mary Lubbock (1860–92), and Norman Lubbock (1861–1926). Two more children would come later, Gertrude Lubbock (1863–1934) and Rolfe Arthur Lubbock (1865–1909).
Please cite as “Tyndall1976,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on