BIB_ID
420001
Accession number
MA 1352.40
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1843 November 2.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.2 x 11.4 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal, postmarks, a penny postage stamp and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly." Dickens has written "To be forwarded" above the address, the address has been crossed through and "2 Eastern Terrace / Brighton" above and to the right of the original address.
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 "Devonshire Terrace / Second November 1843."
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 "Devonshire Terrace / Second November 1843."
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 note from "...the Ragged Schoolmaster," suggesting possible trades that Nell might learn but also suggesting they might first "...find out what the child thinks herself, and then to cast about among your servants for instance, whether they have not some friend or relation who is, or who knows some other friend or relation who is, in a respectable little way of business that would do for her;" suggesting several shops that might be possibilities; reporting on her payments to the Elton children; saying "This day week I shall have paid the Eltons, the full amount you gave me. One of the poor girls is very ill, I am sorry to say and seems consumptive;" relating the story of a "cruel hoax of the bottle."
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