BIB_ID
124775
Accession number
MA 1352.653
Creator
Martineau, Harriet, 1802-1876.
Display Date
Ambleside, England, 1855 March 8.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.3 x 12.3 cm
Notes
The letter is part of a collection, MA 1352, which consists of letters from Charles Dickens to the Baroness, to her companion Hannah (Meredith) Brown, or the latter's husband, William Brown; with ten letters written by Catherine Dickens to Angela Burdett Coutts and 73 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner. See the collection-level record for more information.
Written on stationery printed with a drawing of The Knoll / Ambleside and dated March 8th."
Year of writing from published letter cited below.
Written on stationery printed with a drawing of The Knoll / Ambleside and dated March 8th."
Year of writing from published letter cited below.
Provenance
The letters formed part of the Burdett-Coutts sale (Sotheby, 17 May 1922); they were purchased for Oliver W. Barrett in whose collection they remained until it was sold by his son (Parke-Bernet, 31 October 1951).
Summary
Reporting on her life and her health in Ambleside, thanking Dickens and Miss Coutts for their letters and commending Miss Coutts for the work she is doing; saying "I write on this paper that you may see where I sit in the sun, in these bright afternoons; - viz. in an easy chair before the porch; - which porch is all grown over now with mixed evergreens & roses & honeysuckle, & really quite green already. You may understand the ladies on the terrace to be my nieces, - one head nurse, & the other house-keeper & second nurse. Two are necessary, as I am never left alone for a minute. - I am so sorry the Willses could not come to my little paradise while I could receive them. It would be no pleasure to them, - or more pain than pleasure, - to come now. I am not better, of course; - somewhat worse; but yet I may live some months, we think, though our judgment is rather against it. Thank you heartily for your own & Miss Coutts's cheering letters. Something, - & not a little, - is actually doing. I have always believed that women must do, or see done, what is wanted; & it is truly comforting that the woman who can do so much has the matter so earnestly at heart. I trust the example will have its effect, besides & beyond the organisation instituted by Miss Coutts, & that the effects may in time spread to even such a region as this. Ever since I have lived here, I have been trying to open my neighbours' eyes to the virtues of stewing in particular, as well as good cookery in general : (I suppose you know Count Rumford on that head: ) & my doctor told me just now that an immense amount of disease here is owing to the abominable dinners the people eat, - in a district where there is really no poverty, except where the parents are sots. And the bad cookery helps the sottishness, not a little. - You have been very good in procuring me the comfort you have given me about this matter, & I am grateful both to you & Miss Coutts."
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