London | 27th Ap. 1864
My dear Tom
I have been rather laid up since you went away. Last week during one of the warm days I laid off some of my under clothing. On Sunday I went down to Lubbock’s—the day was cold, and towards evening particularly bitter. We had a long game of croquet, and was chilled. My back was a mere superficies of pains and aches on the following day. I tried a Turkish Bath, but it did not do much good and I had to lie by on Tuesday. Yesterday I had another Turkish bath, and today I am better.
Spottiswoode was at Lubbock’s and they all enquired about you. Mrs. Lubbock1 wished much to write to you. She also told me that she wished to come here and bid you goodbye. Why did you not let her?
I have had some letters from the physician at Leighlin.2 The Dean3 who first wrote to me4 put the disease as a consequence. It is quite evident that he was in error; what he deemed a consequence was merely an accompaniment. The doctor never mentions it. Years ago I thought if she lived long enough she must finally give way. Her mind was so feeble, so rambling, so unoccupied, and so saturated with the enthusiasm of what people call religion. I shall try to get to London as soon as my lectures at Jermyn Street5 are concluded, that is in about ten days from the present time.
Your note6 reached me this morning and tomorrow (Friday) your letters shall be posted according to your directions. I feel great interest in the matter to which you refer. I confess it often crossed my mind—that is to say the possibility of such a thing crossed my mind, but I did not seriously dwell upon it.
During my illness I have been reading the life of Sir William Napier7—a fine ardent spirit, but utterly volcanic—it makes me feel better when I read the life of such a man; for I have volcanic elements within me, and I fear it is pure cowardice which represses them sometimes. I have been also reading a work entitled Aristotle by our friend Lewis8 who used to write in the Leader.9 He is a very clever fellow, but the tone of his book is decidedly unpleasant. He has no reverence and a vast deal of conceit.
I propose devoting two or three days to a ramble in Wicklow,10 working my way on thus to Carlow.11 I have never been through Wicklow, but I believe it is very beautiful. Glendalough12 has always been a weird region to me, so I intend to visit Saint Kevin’s bed.13 I shall probably also look in upon the Waterford Tyndall’s14 before my return. My Friday evening15 is a great bother to me. I have no matter of my own and I do not know where to find matter.
I trust you are getting strong. St. Malo16 is a fine old place. I have a pleasant memory of it, and of that journey that I accomplished through Normandy with Debus.17 Dear me! what a number of things are becoming memories, and how long the vistas of the past are beginning to appear! The Abbé18 writes to me that the book ‘se [repond assez rapidement], and que tout le monde le fait le plus grand éloge’.19 An “Atlantic Monthly” has been sent to me in which its merits are also trumpeted forth.20 In fact except in the case of that unchivalrous Scotchman21 I have been only too well treated. Goodbye my dear Tom. Walk about as much as possible, get strong, and come back to me tough & renewed in body & mind.
Yours affectionately | John
RI MS JT/1/T/661
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/528
Mrs Lubbock: Ellen Lubbock.
the physician at Leighlin: presumably a physician to Tyndall’s mother, identified as ‘Dr Phillips’ in letter 2105.
The Dean: James Lyster (1810–91), Dean of Leighlin (1854–64), the incumbent of the Cathedral Church of St Laserian, Old Leighlin in the united Diocese of Cashel and Ossory within the Church of Ireland. Lyster emigrated to Canada in 1864 to take up the post of Dean of Ontario, serving in Kingston until 1885 (‘An Exchange of Deaneries’, Public Opinion: A Weekly Review of Current Thought and Activity, 20 August 1864, p. 222).
wrote to me: letter missing.
my lectures at Jermyn Street: see letter 2080, n. 5.
Your note: letter missing.
Sir William Napier: William Francis Patrick Napier (1785–1860), a British army officer and writer (ODNB). W. F. P. Napier, Life of General Sir William Napier, ed. H. A. Bruce, 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1864).
Aristotle by our friend Lewis: G. H. Lewes, Aristotle. A Chapter from the History of Science including analyses of Aristotle’s scientific writings (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1864). George Henry Lewes (1817–78), an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre, from the 1850s he published popular science works, on seashore life, for Blackwoods Magazine, and also in John Chapman’s Westminster Review. He also served as editor of the Leader for a short time. He was an intimate friend of Herbert Spencer and Marian Evans. Although he was unable to divorce his wife, from the mid-1850s he and Evans lived together as man and wife, which scandalized many of their friends. From 1854 Lewes wrote fewer popular pieces and turned to scientific investigations, and to physiology in particular, but also wrote extensively on the philosophy and science of mind (ODNB).
the Leader: Lewes co-founded The Leader, a weekly radical newspaper that was published in London between 1850 and 1860, with Thornton Leigh Hunt. Lewes primarily wrote theatre criticism in the Leader, but also ventured into popular science writing, and later into science as a practitioner.
Wicklow: see letter 2091, n. 9.
Carlow: County Carlow, Ireland, location of Leighlinbridge where Tyndall was born and his mother lived..
Glendalough: a glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Saint Kevin’s bed: originally a bronze-age tomb, Saint Kevin’s bed is an artificial cave in Glendalough, Ireland named after Saint Kevin (498–618). Glendalough is one of the most important sites of monastic ruins in Ireland.
Waterford Tyndall’s: Tyndall had been interested in his family tree and had learnt of a branch of the family in Waterford.
Friday evening: see letter 2091, n. 7.
St. Malo: Saint Malo is a historic French port in Brittany on the Channel coast.
that journey that I accomplished through Normandy with Debus: Tyndall and Debus were together in Normandy during the summer of 1855.
The Abbé: François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno.
‘se repond assez rapidement, and que tout le monde le fait le plus grand éloge’: essentially, that the response Tyndall’s Heat as a Mode of Motion (1863) or Moigno’s French translation of it, La chaleur considérée come un mode de mouvement (1864), has been relatively quick and that everyone has given it the greatest praise. This letter from Moigno is missing.
An ‘Atlantic Monthly’: ‘Review of Heat as a Mode of Motion’, Atlantic Monthly, 13 (1864), pp. 512–6.
that unchivalrous Scotchman: a reference to William Thomson (1824–1907). See letter 2002 and W. Thomson, ‘Note on Professor Tyndall’s “Remarks on the Dynamical Theory of Heat”’, Phil. Mag., 25 (1863), p. 429.
Please cite as “Tyndall2090,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on