BIB_ID
419876
Accession number
MA 1352.318
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Brighton, England, 1853 March 5.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18 x 11.3 cm + envelope
Notes
Signed with initials.
Written from "1 Junction Parade, Brighton."
Envelope with stamps and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
The report on Samuel Walter Burgess that Dickens refers to in this letter has been preserved and is cataloged as MA 1352.683. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
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 "1 Junction Parade, Brighton."
Envelope with stamps and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
The report on Samuel Walter Burgess that Dickens refers to in this letter has been preserved and is cataloged as MA 1352.683. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
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 report on Samuel Walter Burgess, which he calls "much too lenient;" discussing the plans for the Victoria Lodging-House, for soldiers and their families quartered in London, and saying that the plot of land chosen for it is very close to St. Stephen's School; discussing the Duke of Wellington's objections to the idea of the officers who founded the lodging house receiving any return on their investment; saying that profits in such an enterprise would be small, giving the example of a similar society in which he himself had purchased a share, and concluding that her idea of donating any profits she might accrue to educational purposes, specifically St. Stephen's, is a fine one; describing the rain and wind in Brighton; writing that he is suffering from rheumatism and "was seized in the night (for Mrs. Brown's particular companionship) with my old horrid nervous choaking ; to grapple with which fiend, I am going out to buy some of that snuff."
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