410 Professor Tyndall [May 3, 10, and 17, 



hands and face. From six to eight, exercise one half, and study one 

 half. From eight to ten, breakfast, attend prayers, &c. From ten to 

 twelve, study all the time. From twelve to one, dine, &c. From one 

 to four, study constantly. From four to five, relieve my mind by 

 some diversion or exercise. From five till bedtime, follow what my 

 inclination leads me to ; whether it be to go abroad, or stay at home 

 and read either Anatomy, Physic, or Chemistry, or any other book I 

 want to peruse." 



In 1771 he managed, by walking daily from Woburn to Cambridge 

 and back, a distance of some sixteen miles, to attend the lectures on 

 natural philosophy delivered by Professor Winthrop in Harvard 

 College. Tliis privilege was secured to him by his friend Mr. 

 •Baldwin, with whom about this time he appears to have quarrelled. 

 The difference, however, was rapidly adjusted, and it left no abiding 

 trace behind. Thomjison had taught school for a short time at 

 Wilmington, and afterwards for six weeks and three days at Bradford, 

 where his repute rose so high that he received a call to Concord, the 

 capital town of New Hampshire, situated higher up than Bradford on 

 the river Merrimac. The Indian name of Concord was Penacook. In 

 1783 it had been incorporated as a town in Essex county, Massa- 

 chusetts. Some of the early settlers in Essex county had come from 

 the English Essex ; and, as regards pronunciation, they carried with 

 them the name of the English Essex town, Romford, of brewery 

 celebrity. They, however, changed the first o into m, calling the 

 American town Rumford. Strife had occurred as to the county or 

 state to which Rumford belonged. But the matter was amicably 

 settled at last ; and to denote the subsequent harmony, the name was 

 changed from Rumford to Concord.* In later years, when honours 



* In connection with this subject I have been favoured with the following 

 interesting lettL-r : — 



"Addison Lodge, Barnes, S.VV. 

 " Dear Sir, Aujust Idth. 



" I venture to proffer a remark upon a detail in your interesting paper upon 

 Count Rumford. My apology for so doing is tliat I am a Romford man, and that 

 I think you may care for the mere crumb of information I possess bearing upon 

 the spelling and pronunciation of the name of my native place. 



"Romford is always pronounced Ri/mford hy Essex folk. "When I was a 

 boy it was spelled almost indifferently, Romford and Rumford. I remember that 

 the post-mark in my school days (some forty years ago) was R?niiford. Norden's 

 map of Essex (1599) has Rumforde; and on Bowen's map (1775) the spelling is 

 the same — Rumford. The registers in the vestry book, from 1GG5 until some 

 fifty years ago, give Rumford. So that I think it safe to say that the traditional 

 spelling and pronunciation with the Essex settlers at Concord must have been 

 Rumford. I must, however, add — but I fear I am hardly justified in troubling 

 you with so long a note — that the o occurs in two Latin entries in the Register— 



" ' 1564, Baptizata fuit Anna Baylie filia Hugonis Cissor, Romford.' 



" And in the same year there is an entry of a burial with ' Romfordiae.' I 

 believe it was the Latinizing of Rumford that modified the vowel, the alteration 

 being prompted by the mistaken notion that the etymology of the place was 



