Dear Friend,
Between 6 and 7 yesterday3 we entered Kingstown Harbour,4 with the western sun flashing up from the water on our faces. I noticed for some time before reaching Kingstown, a finely formed purple mountain & on enquiry found it to be the Great Sugar Loaf.5 I spent last night in Bray,6 and this morning with a boy to carry my pack I sallied forth to Roundwood & the Seven Churches.7 But still that finely formed purple mountain loomed in the air above me, and I attacked it and now sit alone upon its top; whence these lines are sent to you. Interpret them as being filled with my love to you & yours8 | J. T.
A most extraordinary haze is covering all the mountain; the air throughout is gradually thickening to opacity, and still the sun shines upon the head of the Sugar Loaf. Far adown its slopes the lambs are bleating, and I must descend lest this haze should thicken round me & cut off my retreat. I have no compass and the land is strange to me. Lebwohl!9
RI MS JT/3/32/2
unidentified: the reference to ‘you & yours’ and the German salutation ‘Lebewohl!’ imply an older woman, possibly Juliet Pollock.
[6 May 1864]: the date is given as Tyndall left London for Ireland on 4 May 1864, and returned to London on 14 May 1864. During this trip to Ireland, Tyndall visited Wicklow (location of places mentioned in this letter) and then south to Gorey and on to Carlow. See letter 2091.
yesterday: presumably 5 May 1864.
Kingstown Harbour: now named Dún Laoghaire, it is effectively the harbour for Dublin.
the Great Sugar Loaf: also known as the Big Sugar Loaf and often as simply the Sugar Loaf, a mountain in east County Wicklow in Ireland.
Bray: a coastal town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated about 12 miles south of Dublin city centre on the east coast.
Roundwood & the Seven Churches: Roundwood is a village in County Wicklow about 12 miles southwest of Bray. The Seven Churches is a monastery complex located near the village of Eoghanacht on the Aran Islands. Tyndall appears to have made a diversion on the way to climb the Great Sugar Loaf. The Seven Churches in the Glendalough valley nearby are the remains of seven early medieval churches, making up one of the most important monastic sites in Ireland.
you & yours: if this letter is to Juliet Pollock (see n. 1), ‘yours’ would refer to her husband William Frederick Pollock and their sons Frederick, Walter, and Maurice Pollock.
Lebwohl!: goodbye! (German).
Please cite as “Tyndall2092,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on