59 Montagu Square W1 | August 2. 1864
My dear Mr. Tyndall
It added to all our happiness to hear of your well being, but I am sorry that your molecules should have been chilled: they must not go into any more ice caverns. Our molecules, on the contrary, have run the risk of dissolution by heat since you left us, and have hardly known how to find the firmness of purpose to hold together. But we had our pleasant garden to shelter them in and under the shade of boughs, but not melancholy ones, I have lost and neglected some of the creeping hours of time.
Those that were not neglected were passed in reading sonnets and in playing croquet. The sonnets are by Charles Turner,2 Tennyson’s Brother (you have seen his early ones) and are very lately published in one thin volume, which I intend to present to you as soon as you return home, for I feel very sure of your being charmed with their sweet music and with their delicate appreciation and fine observation of nature’s beauties, and with their power of expressing thoughts strong as well as tender, in the best possible words. There is one that brought you to my mind as being ‘like’ what you would feel and think and tell. It is called the Boatman of the Moselle.3
We have made little excursions from London on several occasions, to St. Julians4 and last Sunday, to the Chief Baron’s5 place at Hatton.6 We had a delightful day there, indeed it is always delightful to be with him. He is the fulfilment of Sir H. Wottons character of a happy man;7 his mind is all light and love and truth, and he has no physical infirmity to interfere with it. He walked with me in the sunshine of his garden till I was obliged to ask for shelter & rest and then when we came in doors he read out to me some of his favourite passages in Burke8—and talked to me a good deal about the Queen’s English on which subject he has been lately in correspondence with the Dean of Canterbury.9 At dinner he said grace – “God be praised for all his mercies upon the table, and round the table”—surveying the large gathering of children & grandchildren there present with happy tears in his eyes. He was as happy at Walter’s10 having come in first, in the last Eton examination11 and having been sent up for good and having got two prizes as if he were his only child instead of one among an immensity of grandchildren. He appreciates every little drop of the rolling ocean with all its reflection of light and colour.
The Miss Speddings12 are at Spa13 till the 15.th Aug[us]t. and afterwards go to Switzerland you may possibly come across them. Our croquet meetings lately have been under the influence of Miss Caruac14 who is very charming and lively & plays as skilfully and gracefully as any player I ever saw with such a pleasant temper that it seems a favour to be beaten by her. We have become friends and her mother has called upon me but their way of life is rather more in fashion and dissipation than ours & for that reason we shall probably never be very much together.
We go to St Julians on the 15.th August staying there probably till the 1st Sept[embe]r On the 3.d we go to Freshwater15 to Easton & I hope you will be able to come to us there.
The Moores16 are at Esher17—the Barlows18 at Sydenham19. <T>he poor dear man daily worse—the Erskines20 (in Town at present)—go to Fir Grove21 next Saturday.
My husband’s22 love—he has borne the heat this year better than usual. Walter and Moss23 join in affec[tiona]te greetings and Moss asks you how many days it would take you to eat 24 biscuits if you eat one half per day.
Yours my dear Mr. Tyndall | Ever most truly | Juliet Pollock
RI MS JT/1/P/172
RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/2013–4
59 Montagu Square W: see letter 1954, n. 2.
Charles Turner: Charles Tennyson Turner (1808–79), an Anglican clergyman and poet, and elder brother of the poet Alfred Tennyson. Pollock was referring to C. Turner, Sonnets (London: Macmillan and Co.,1864).
Boatman of the Moselle: the full title was ‘The Moselle Boatman and his Daughter’ (Turner, Sonnets, pp. 9–10).
St. Julians: see letter 1954, n. 14.
Chief Baron: Jonathan Frederick Pollock (1783–1870), William Frederick Pollock’s father and the Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
Hatton: Hatton was Pollock’s family estate in Hatton, Hounslow in the county of Middlesex..
Sir H. Wottons character of a happy man: a reference to British diplomat and author Henry Wotton’s (1568–1639) poem ‘Character of a Happy Life’ (J. Hannah (ed), Poems by Sir Henry Wotton, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Others (London: William Pickering, 1845), pp. 28–31).
Burke: Edmund Burke (1730–97), Member of Parliament and philosopher who was widely regarded for his opposition to the French Revolution, which he saw as undermining the natural institutions of society. Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) prompted a number of responses, among them Tom Paine’s Rights of Man (1791) and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).
Dean of Canterbury: Henry Alford (1810 – 71), an English theologian and author, Dean of Canterbury from 1857–71 (ODNB).
Walter: Walter Pollock, the second son of William Frederick and Juliet Pollock.
Eton examination: Walter Pollock was a student at Eton College from 1862–65.
Miss Speddings: the Speddings were a large family; it is thus not clear exactly which Miss Speddings are referred to here.
Spa: likely Cheltenham Spa, a fashionable spa town at this time.
Miss Caruac: or possibly ‘Carnac’; not identified.
Freshwater: see letter 2028, n. 28.
The Moores: this is likely a reference to Harriet Jane Moore and Julia Moore, although they had other siblings: John Carrick Moore and Graham Francis Moore (1806–83), a lawyer; another sister was deceased, Louisa Moore (1802–53). Their mother, Harriet Moore (née Henderson, 1779–1866) might also be implied here. Her husband, James Carrick-Moore (1762–1860), a surgeon and promoter of vaccination, and brother of the feted war hero John Moore of Corunna, had died four years earlier. The wealthy Moores had close connections with the RI and frequently entertained Tyndall at their Wimbledon home.
Esher: a small, then fashionable, town in Surrey.
the Barlows: the family of John Barlow.
Sydenham: a district in the southeastern boroughs of London.
the Erskines: probably the legal theorist Thomas Erskine May (1815–86) and his wife Johanna Laughton (ODNB).
Fir Grove: Fir Grove House, Eversley, built c. 1736; home of the judge Thomas Erskine (1788–1864) and his wife Henrietta Elizabeth Erskine (née Trail) (c. 1757–c. 1815) resided here (ODNB).
My husband’s: William Frederick Pollock.
Moss: Maurice Pollock, the youngest son of William Frederick and Juliet Pollock.
Please cite as “Tyndall2126,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on