New University Club <1>
London
– Monday April 12th
My dear Father
I am lodging at 9 South St Thurloe Square, close to the South Kensington Museum. <2> That is a long way to come and look for me and I am not generally there after the middle of the day. In the evening I am generally at my club. I could find you either at the Athenaeum, <3> or your hotel.
Yesterday was, as you say exceedingly hot; as hot, I think as any July day.
I had a good deal of walking having walked from my lodgings to my club, back with Henry Dillwyn <4> to Ken Princes Gate Terrace then to Paddington with Mr Dillwyn Mr John Nicholl <5> and his youngest daughter; and then from St Johns Wood Road Station to the Zoological Gardens, about them, and as far as All Saints church, <6> Margaret St, then to our club. Having From which point having to return to Princes Terrace, I refused to walk any more and went in a cab.
Tyndal’s <7> first lecture on heat was yes very clear, and interesting.
<Gribic?> on Geology yesterday also was good, and I learnt somethings I did not know –
Dr Carpenter <8> last Friday evening lectured on the life of the Deep Sea, and showed that chalk was now being formed at the bottom of the b Atlantic ocean, and that there was reason to suppose that this chalk is not similar to only, but identical with the old chalk formation, in other words that the chalk period is still going on at the bottom of the Atlantic. I saw the Speddings at Tyndal’s lecture.
I should like to know if there are any other scientific meetings to which you could give me admission besides the Royal Institution. <9>
Your affect son
Charles
Notes:
1. New University Club, St James’s Street, London SW.
2. Due to the success of the Great Exhibition in 1851, the Museum of Manufactures was opened the following year, exhibiting a wide selection of art and design. In 1857, it was renamed as the South Kensington Museum and moved to its current premises. The collections and the buildings expanded since then and in 1899, it was finally given the name of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
3. Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London: WHFT’s club; a gentleman’s club composed primarily of artists and scientists.
4. Harry Dillwyn. [See Doc. No: 09056, and Doc. No: 09451].
5. Probably the son of Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
6. Built in the 14th century gothic style in 1859 and deigned by the architect William Butterfield (1814–1900). “There is great freedom in the handling of forms and mouldings, and an exuberance in the colour dcoration. One of the striking features of the church is the, then novel, use of exposed brickwork, both external and internal.”
7. John Tyndall (1820–1893), natural philosopher; between 1859–1871, he conducted his important researches on ‘Radiant Heat and its relation to Gases and Vapours.’
8. William Benjamin Carpenter (1813–1885), naturalist; conducted deep-sea explorations between the north of Ireland and the Faroe Islands in 1868, exploring the fauna and other phenomena of the sea-bottom.
9. Royal Institution, London.