From Andrew Ramsay   5. Oct 1864.

Corsewall, Stranraer | 5. Oct 1864.

My dear Tyndall,

I only received your note¹ of 1^st last night on coming in from a long days work. I am exceedingly pleased that you like my reply² so well, and I am bound to confess that it gives me a very decided pleasure when anything I may chance to do is appreciated by one whose approval is worth having. Marry come up!³ as the novelists say, when one gets a compliment of the order of “my distinguished friend” my minds toe is very apt to go to work kicking the complimenter.

I hope Sir Roderick⁴ will not think it incumbent on his dignity to reply to my reply. I do not want to have anything more to do with it, but if he does rejoin, I have left plenty of points untouched, and further if I chose to be savage I could show an utter want of consistency & coherence in the whole affair. But I will not allow myself under any circumstances to be tempted into doing that to my venerable Superior Officer. What a curious piece of vanity it is his going into the matter at all!

I am doing a bit of mapping here to hasten the completion of an area. It will only take a few days, & you will think me very jollily placed when I tell you I am staying with our friend John Carrick Moore. It is a charming house & they are delightful people.⁵

Ever sincerely | Andrew Ramsay

I am having 200 extra copies⁶ printed & shall send you one. I have just seen your letter in the Times⁷ & have it yet to read. I saw it just as we were starting out to day, & now I have barely time to dress for dinner.

RI MS JT/1/R/4

RI MS JT/1/TYP3/1006