BIB_ID
309466
Accession number
MA 1352.80
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1847 November 3.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (13 pages, with address) ; 18.2 x 11.2 and 22.6 x 18.7 cm
Notes
Signed with initials.
Address panel with fragment of a seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Hotel Bristol / Place Vendome / Paris."
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 70 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner; and a few others. See the collection-level record for more information.
Written from "Devonshire Terrace / Wednesday Third November 1847."
Address panel with fragment of a seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Hotel Bristol / Place Vendome / Paris."
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 70 letters written by others to Miss Coutts or to Dickens in his capacity as her unofficial almoner; and a few others. See the collection-level record for more information.
Written from "Devonshire Terrace / Wednesday Third November 1847."
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
Discussing, at length and in detail, issues related to religious instruction, house rules and concerns about temptation; relating details of one possible inmate whom he did not think would succeed; expressing his hope that they will not need to delay the opening, reporting on the details of the dresses and linen and the courses for their instruction;" saying "We have already had some Rehearsals of the routine of each day's life (not set forth in the regulations) and we shall have some more on Saturday, and next week. I hope the Furniture will be completed on Saturday. It is all promised;" referring to a "...stupid account of the Home in the Newspapers some time ago. If they blunder upon anything else, the design can be easily explained, as you wish, either by my writing a letter on the subject, or an account of the Institution : selecting any channel of publication that is within reach, and that you may think most desirable. It is possible that there may be nothing more written about it : but if there be, it is easily set right;" adding that they are trying to find a few women who have not been in prison but the advantage of taking women from a prison is that they will know more about them; discussing the goal of the women feeling free before going abroad and the need "...to give them to understand that no one should Ever be sent abroad alone. It would be a beautiful thing, and would give us a wonderful power over them, if they would form strong attachments among themselves. To say nothing of the encouragement and support they would be to one another in a foreign country;" concluding "The greatest anxiety I feel, in connexion with this scheme - it is a greater one than any that arises out of my sense of responsibility to you, though that is not slight - is, that the clergyman with whom I hope I am to act as one confiding in him and perfectly confided in, should be not only a well-intentioned man, as I believe most clergymen would be, but one of the kindest, most considerate, most judicious, and least exacting of his order."
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