BIB_ID
419985
Accession number
MA 1352.342
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Boulogne, France, 1853 August 27.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.2 cm + envelope
Notes
Written from Boulogne.
Signed with initials.
Envelope with postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Bains de Vichy / Auvergne."
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 with postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Bains de Vichy / Auvergne."
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
Thanking her for some powders; reporting that two teenage girls who had stolen from Urania Cottage have been apprehended: "The little girl from Petworth is an extraordinary case of restless imposture and seeking after notoriety ; but there are chances (not desperate chances, I think) of something better being made of it;" saying that he has just finished Bleak House; describing the storms near Boulogne and saying that he fears there will have been shipwrecks; saying that a particular article in the Daily News was written by his sub-editor William Henry Wills, in conjunction with the editor of the paper, Frederick Knight Hunt; describing festivities celebrating the completion of Bleak House; discussing his travel plans for the fall; mentioning a newpaper account of the legal disputes between George and Caroline Norton; adding that he looks forward to hearing how she likes Vichy and how "those airy plans of yours seem to be shaping themselves out in the far perspective;" sending love from his wife and family; telling her that the plan to have him read from A Christmas Carol in Birmingham is coming together: "I am going to read three nights in the Christmas week -- to two thousand working people only, on the Friday -- the Christmas Carol. You heard the beginning of Bleak House. I wish (and did wish very heartily) you had been here the night before last, to hear the end;" sending regards to the Browns.
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