BIB_ID
419847
Accession number
MA 1352.309
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1853 January 7.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (5 pages) ; 20.2 x 12.5 cm + envelope
Notes
Written on the stationery of the Office of Household Words.
Signed with initials.
Envelope addressed to: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Mivart's Hotel / Brook Street."
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.
Signed with initials.
Envelope addressed to: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Mivart's Hotel / Brook Street."
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.
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
Describing in detail a visit to Saint Mark's District; saying that he does not think it is a suitable area for experiments with model dwellings; offering to show it to her or to meet with the Incumbent (the Reverend George Fitzgerald Galaher); mentioning that a ditch in Jacob's Island (scene of Chapter 50 in Oliver Twist) has been filled in; discussing the payment of his son Charles's tuition; describing an evening hosted by the Society of Artists in Birmingham, during which he was fêted and presented with a salver and diamond ring; saying that he promised to return to Birmingham at the end of the year and give a public reading of A Christmas Carol in the town hall; telling her that he asked the mayor about a certain church experiment, which turned out to have failed, but he did not have the opportunity to discuss it with Archdeacon Sandford; sending his best regards to Hannah Brown.
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