BIB_ID
419851
Accession number
MA 1352.310
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1853 January 13.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.1 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Written from "Tavistock House."
Signed with initials.
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.
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
Enclosing a printed extract from a prospectus issued by "a Society for improving poor dwellings to which I do not belong;" mentioning that he thinks Viscount Ingestre, champion of the inventor Samuel Alfred Warner, leads this particular society (a mistaken identification on Dickens's part); saying that this extract, which describes a plan for building ten houses in Bermondsey, near Jacob's Island, is what he was referring to in his previous letter (MA 1352.309); vouching for the sanitary reformer John Sutherland; adding that he unfortunately was not able to go the Ragged School the previous night, because he was "shut up in Bleak House from 10 to 5, and then had to go to the Household Words office until 9."
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