BIB_ID
327035
Accession number
MA 1352.654
Creator
Martineau, Harriet, 1802-1876.
Display Date
Ambleside, England, 1855 March 23.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.5 x 12.2 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 from "Ambleside / March 23'd / 55."
Written from "Ambleside / March 23'd / 55."
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
Expressing her "...great pleasure to see what is actually doing in this matter of 'Common Things.' Miss Coutts's request for any comment that may occur to either you or me is tempting : but here I feel my weakness, & am obliged to say that I cannot. Only this, - that I have found the best effect produced upon little girls by telling them (in true anecdotes, if possible) how things should not be done. There is something droll in failures which fixes the particular in children's memory. Eg, I am told that girls have learned how to make broth from a description of a complete failure in that business which occurs in a certain story of mine 'the Hamlet.' (one of the Poor-law tales.) Every teacher of common processes must have known some blunderer or another; & a case of warning may corroborate & confirm didactic teaching, to some purpose. - This Report makes me long to be at it. But workers will turn up no doubt, & I am heartily thankful to Miss Coutts for opening the field to them. Good Mr. Saunders is not coming. He was coming on business; but the negotiation has fallen through. I hope his pretty play will do well, & that his casting himself upon a literary life is a less desperate project than it appears to be, - with his tribe of children. - As for me, there is no great change. The sinking fits become more frequent & more oppressive to myself, though less alarming, naturally by dint of number to my nurses. My head remains perfectly clear, happily, & less frequently congested than it was. I have poor Miss Wordsworth's garden chair to get into the field with. Miss W. died a few weeks since, & Mrs. Wordsworth has kindly sent me the world-widely-known chair;" sending her regard to Mrs. Dickens and Miss Hogarth "...and also to Mr. Forster, whose friendly message reached me by Wm. Arnold."
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