BIB_ID
419914
Accession number
MA 1352.326
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1853 April 1.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18 x 11.4 cm + envelope
Notes
Written from "Tavistock House."
Envelope with stamp and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly."
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.
Envelope with stamp and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly."
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
Saying that William John Broderip, a magistrate and naturalist, has expressed his willingness to help her and recommending him highly; concurring with her suggestions about the "Home for Homeless Women" article and saying that he will resolve all her concerns about it before it goes to press: "it shall not leave my hands until it is perfectly discreet;" writing that his son Charles seems to be admirably placed with Professor Müller in Leipzig; mentioning that before he left, Dickens wrote a description of his son's character and his "little weak points" for Professor Müller and read it out loud to Charley, "in order that he might know the confidence that was established between them;" saying that his reading of the book Public Education by Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth has made him feel "dreadfully jaded" and "as if I had just come out of the Great Desert of Sahara where my Camel died a fortnight ago."
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