St Julians | Sevenoaks1 | Tuesday 27th Dec. 1864
My dear Tyndall
Thanks for your letter2—I shall be in town tomorrow & Thursday—& will try to see you at the R.I. tomorrow about 2—from 11 to 1—I shall be at the Equitable3—& at after 3—at the Reader Office4—probably dining at the Athenaeum5—& going to Lady Mounteagle’s6 in the evening—on Thursday I shall of course be assisting at our achievement of the paper at 24 Tavistock St7—as I shall see you tomorrow I will now say nothing about Huxley’s article,8 except that I hope we may have the benefit of it. He can easily retain all its power & remove any ground of objection—
I thought we had a good number last week—the theatrical notices of the plays9 at Westminster10 & Eton11 were by “our own correspondent,”12 a friend of yours, & scholar of Trin. Coll. Cam.13 He was naturally at Eton—& I especially wrote to Stanley14 to get him a ticket for the Westminster performance15—The Homeric review16 (w[hic]h I am glad you like) is not mine—but written by another friend of yours17—The first notice was a joint affair—but this was all her’s. I have good things coming on for this week & the next—for the present I foresee no difficulty in keeping the larder well filled. We are all well here—but want sun. With all kind regards from Juliet & the boys.18—
Yours ever | W. F. Pollock
RI MS JT/2/10 (this reference is uncertain)
St Julians | Sevenoaks: see letter 1954, n. 14.
Thanks for your letter: letter 2200.
the Equitable: the English Court of the Chancery.
the Reader Office: Pollock had been approached by Tyndall and Huxley to join in the purchase of the Reader and for his literary help (see letter 2181, n. 1). He wrote in his journal: ‘Their object was to provide a better record than existed of the progress of science, and of the labours and opinions of scientific men, with reports of the proceedings of scientific institutions, and space for correspondence’ (Remembrances, vol. 2, pp. 128–9). The office for The Reader was located at 24 Tavistock St. in London.
Athenaeum: see letter 1907, n. 7.
Lady Monteagle’s: Marianne Spring Rice (dates unknown), Lady Monteagle, wife of Thomas Spring Rice (1790–1866), 1st Baron Monteagle; daughter of the Leeds industrialist John Marshall. She was Spring Rice’s second wife, married in 1841. She brought much needed money into the family, which allowed them to keep a house in London as well as Mount Trenchard House, in County Limerick, Ireland.
24 Tavistock St: the office of The Reader (see n. 3).
Huxley’s article: T. H. Huxley, ‘Science and “Church Policy”’, The Reader, 4 (1864), p. 821. In it, Huxley had been critical of Disraeli, and Pollock had obviously objected. Tyndall thought Huxley’s criticism merited, and was wary of too much editorial control over Huxley’s combative style for the paper. Tyndall noted in his journal entry for 28 December that ‘Pollock and Huxley have arranged matters pleasantly’ (RI MS JT/2/13c/1273).
theatrical notices of the plays: ‘Miscellanea’, The Reader, 4 (1864), p. 801.
Westminster: Westminster School in London.
Eton: Eton College in Eton, Berkshire.
“our own correspondent”: possibly William Hepworth Thomson (1810–86), Professor of Greek at Trinity College. Thomson succeeded William Whewell as Master of Trinity in 1866, following Whewell’s untimely death (ODNB). Tyndall would dine as his guest at Trinity in May 1865, the day after dining with young Frederick Pollock, who was studying there (RI MS JT/2/13c/1289).
Trin. Coll. Cam: Trinity College, Cambridge.
Stanley: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–81), an Anglican clergyman, educated at Rugby School and Oxford University (1837) where he obtained a fellowship. He accepted a canonry at Canterbury (1851) before becoming professor of ecclesiastical history at Oxford (1856). In 1863 he married Lady Augusta, one of Queen Victoria’s women of the bedchamber. They were subsequently frequently guests at Windsor Castle. From 1864–81 he was Dean of Westminster, during which time he continued to publish lectures and sermons (ODNB).
Westminster performance: Phormic, a comedic play by the Roman playwright Terence (c. 195/185–c. 159? bc).
Homeric review: ‘Lord Derby’s Iliad’, The Reader, 4 (1864), p. 793–4.
another friend of yours: Juliet Pollock.
boys: Frederick, Walter, and Maurice Pollock.
Please cite as “Tyndall2202,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on