Easton Farm | Freshwater1 | Sep. 8th 1864.
Where is our friend?2 Is he in England, in London, in Albemarle St.,3 among sweet airs or un-sweet gases—where is he? We want him here. We have been here since the third Sep., and we want him to come to us before Walter4 is gone. Walter goes on Wednesday week. You might undertake some adventures with him, climb some cliffs, and face the worst winds upon our pastoral slopes.
Our abode has all its old charms, with the addition of Jane5 to our comfort. Do you know Jane?— it is the one who is not Polly.6 The Tennysons are perhaps at Faringford7 now, for they were expected home yesterday. He was unwell abroad, and so they cut short their intended tour.
Our last evening in London was spent with Carlyle who was at his best, and made grand perorations—he thinks if half mankind had its tongue cut out it would take to doing not being able for talking—and we might get some profit from that. And he thinks nobody ought to write any more verses about love—we have heard all about that long ago.
In passing through London, I had a glimpse of poor Macready8 who is parting (parted now) with a favourite daughter (Cecilia) ordered to Ceylon on account of incipient disease of the lungs poor man.
Yours ever | my dear Mr Tyndall | most truly | Juliet Pollock.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/2018
LT Typescript Only
Freshwater: see letter 2031, n. 28.
our friend: Tyndall himself.
Albemarle St.: location of the RI.
Walter: Walter Pollock, the second son of William Frederick and Juliet Pollock.
Jane: presumably a governess for the Pollock’s sons.
Polly: see letter 2063, n. 7
Faringford: Farringford, the Tennyson family’s home on the Isle of Wight from 1853–72.
Macready: William Charles Macready (1793–1873), a famous English actor who performed in many Shakespearean plays. He was retired and unwell at this point (ODNB).
Juliet Pollock was a close friend who later wrote a memoir about him, Macready as I Knew
Him (London, 1884). Her son Frederick Pollock would later edit Macready’s memoir: F. Pollock (ed), Macready’s Reminiscences, and Selections from His Diaries and Letters, 2 vols (London: Macmillan & Co., 1875).
Please cite as “Tyndall2133,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on