Tuesday
My dear Tom
I start for Ireland tomorrow morning early,2 and have but a portion of today to put my things in order. Hence I cannot write much to you at present. I have written to Debus3 telling him of your position4 and desiring him to inform you without delay whether he can get the papers done.5 You and he will therefore be able to arrange it between you. It would however be a cause of vexation to me to see you return from Paris6 on [their] account. If Debus cannot do them I will employ somebody though whom to employ is not now known to me. Were it another portion of the year I might do them myself: but my absence, and my Friday evening7 the subject of which I am still ignorant of, will disable me from doing any thing at [them]. I must see whether Frankland or somebody else will undertake them for me. This I should prefer to stopping you in your journey to Italy.
Yours ever | John Tyndall
Your letters & papers shall be all sent by this post.
I shall be at Leighlin Bridge8 towards the end of next week say on Friday. I shall walk the Wicklow9 previously—I wish you were with me. I am sure if together we should both get up strength; for I find that mere bodily motion is not sufficient—the mind must at the same be healthily exercised—You may come to this creed in the end.
I should not like to ask permission to send the papers to France. It would be too bold to put in writing & I have no opportunity of seeing Donnelly.10
RI MS JT/1/T/977
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/529
[3 May 1864]: the date is given by relation to letter 2095, dated 14 May, in which Tyndall wrote that he went to Ireland a week ago, so around 7 May, a Saturday. The Tuesday before that was 3 May, so Tyndall would have left for Ireland on 4 May.
I start for Ireland tomorrow morning early: following two failed attempts to head to Ireland in April, Tyndall was finally able to escape London on Wednesday, 4 May 1864. He had previously wished to join Hirst in Ireland to support his friend during ill health, and then to go to Ireland upon the news of his own mother’s ill health, but his duties tied him to London. While in Ireland he made an effort to visit other members of the Tyndall family, and he returned to London on 14 May (see letters 2094 and 2095).
I have written to Debus: letter missing.
your position: see letter 2080, n. 6.
get the papers done: Tyndall hoped that Heinrich Debus could help to mark examination papers that he had Hirst lined up to do (see letter 1926, n. 3).
return from Paris: after his trip to Ireland and finishing his teaching duties, Hirst travelled to France, Italy, and Switzerland (where Tyndall joined him). He left London on 23 April, and returned on 22 August, having spent four months away (Brock and MacLeod, Hirst Journals, pp. 1669–86).
my Friday evening: probably a reference to his Friday Evening Discourse at the RI the following month, ‘On a Magnetic Experiment’ on 10 June 1864 (Roy. Inst. Proc., 4 (1862–66), pp. 317–22).
Leighlin Bridge: Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, where Tyndall was born and his mother lived.
Wicklow: a town of County Wicklow, Ireland; presumably this is a reference to Wicklow gap, one of the country’s highest mountain passes.
Donnelly: most likely John Fretcheville Dykes Donnelly (1834–1902), an Army officer and promoter of scientific education (ODNB). Donnelly was involved in the marking of examination papers, hence Tyndall’s comment about sending papers to France.
Please cite as “Tyndall2091,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on