Black Swan Passage | Halifax 13 June 1864
Mr John Tyndall
Dear Sir
I have just seen Mr Roby Pridie2 who has informed me that my friend3 is very poorly—in Paris.
Is it so? I should like to write to him, may I? You know what a kind friend he has been to me, and if he dies, there is no man living who can ever hold the place in my heart that he has.
If I was a single man I would most willingly die for him.
Forgive me Sir if I intrude for I do not wish to do so Your reply will much oblige me
I am yours sincerely | Henry Hill
RI MS JT/1/H/123
Henry Hill: a friend of Hirst’s. See I. Hesketh and E. Sera-Shriar (eds), The Correspondence of John Tyndall, Volume 4: The Correspondence, January 1853–December 1854 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), p. 529.
Roby Pridie: William Roby Pridie (1825–74), a Yorkshireman whom Hirst and
Tyndall befriended when they joined the Mutual Improvement Society in Halifax. He was the son of the Reverend James Pridie (1786–1873), an independent minister in Halifax.
My friend: Thomas Hirst.
Please cite as “Tyndall2109,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on