London, 14th, May, 1864.
My dear Miss Roche
Yesterday at this hour I was under your roof1—to day I am in London, having travelled all night by the mail packet and train. I am anxious to express to you more fully than I did yesterday how kind I thought it on your part to write to me as you did,2 and also to show you that I put a substantial estimate on your kindness by asking you to help me in a little matter where a lady alone can render proper aid.
It has been my strong desire that my mother3 should spend the evening of her life, possessed of every comfort—that she should be neatly apparelled, carefully tended, and in want of nothing that could contribute to the pleasure of her existence. I confess that the appearance both of her and my sister4 yesterday fell short of what I could have desired. Probably recent trials,—which I have a strong hope are merely evanescent—may account for this, but I want you to help me to alter it. I want you in your kindness to choose proper and becoming apparel both for my mother and sister.
Very many years ago I asked my mother to state the sum on which she could live respectably in Leighlin Bridge.5 —She mentioned 40 pounds a year—I made it 60, and besides this I was ever ready to meet such extra demands as special circumstances might cause to arise. Within the last 12 months 80 pounds have been sent to her. How it is disposed of I do not know, but I was a little distressed yesterday to find one particular on which I have always laid some weight so imperfectly attended to.
My mother informed me yesterday that she had plenty of money. On the 1st of March I sent her her quarterly allowance of fifteen pounds, and about three weeks ago I sent her ten pounds without any application on her part for money. I paid the physician’s6 bill of five pounds yesterday myself. I moreover greatly fear that I shall be 60 pounds out of pocket purely through obliging a gentleman whom my mother reported to be very kind to her. In fact I have been most anxious to forward her wishes and promote her comfort in every way, and my visit to Leighlin 4 years ago induced me to believe that my desires were fulfilled. But yesterday I was not satisfied, and your note to me was all the more precious on that account.
I would ask you to allow me to send you the money necessary for such dresses for my mother and sister as your taste will suggest to you as fit and becoming—dark, sober and decent —but it is I fear worse than useless to leave money in my mother’s hands, and she has or ought to have funds sufficient for this purpose. I write to her by to day’s post7 desiring her to place these funds at your disposal, and I should be very grateful to you if you would dispose of them so as to enable both her and my sister to appear in a manner not unworthy of them and me.
I was also cast down to find that both my mother and sister spent their time mainly in a bedroom. I knew nothing of this before, and determined to have it remedied. Miss Wall8 undertook to have a vacant room downstairs papered and carpeted, the windows repaired and the room rendered quite comfortable. But Miss Wall mentioned to me that she was going to quit Leighlin for six weeks, and if this be the case I must put the matter in other hands, for the room will be most needed during the coming summer weather. I this day write to Miss Wall9 enquiring whether she can set about the work at once and if not I must seek some other means of having the work speedily accomplished. The only thing however that I should venture to trouble you with is the appareling question, and this I trust to your kindness and goodness to solve for me.
If I am wrong in supposing that my mother has ample funds in her hands pray be good enough to draw upon me for the necessary amount.
Believe me dear Miss Roche | Most truly Yours | John Tyndall
Now I think I have given you the very strongest proof in my power to give of faith in your kindness—a faith founded as much upon that intuitive sympathy by which one human being divines the character of another as upon any thing else.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3848–9
LT Typescript Only
under your roof: Tyndall had travelled to Ireland earlier in May in order to visit with members of his family.
to write to me as you did: letter missing, although it is clear that it was Roche that alerted Tyndall to his mother’s ill health.
my mother: Sarah Tyndall.
my sister: Emma Tyndall.
Leighlin Bridge: see letter 2091, n. 8.
physician’s: presumably a physician to Tyndall’s mother, identified as ‘Dr Phillips’ in letter 2101.
I write to her by to day’s post: letter missing.
Miss Wall: presumably the landlady.
I this day write to Miss Wall: letter missing.
Please cite as “Tyndall2094,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on