BIB_ID
420002
Accession number
MA 1352.41
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1843 December 27.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 18.3 x 11.4 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Coutts / St. James's Place."
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 / Twenty Seventh December 1843."
Dickens dedicated "Martin Chuzzlewit" to Miss Coutts.
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 / Twenty Seventh December 1843."
Dickens dedicated "Martin Chuzzlewit" to Miss Coutts.
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
Wishing her a happy Christmas and thanking her, on behalf of Mrs. Dickens, for the offer of her box that night; saying "She is not very well, and I am glad of a pantomime or anything else that is likely to amuse her;" relating news of family activities; saying "I have made a tremendous hit with a conjuring apparatus, which includes some of Doëbler's best tricks, and was more popular last evening after cooking a plum pudding in a hat, and producing a pocket handkerchief from a Wine Bottle, than ever I have been in my life. I shall hope to raise myself in your esteem by these means;" reporting news of Macready and the Eltons and saying how happy he is that Miss Meredith is feeling better; saying "I shall have a request - a petition I ought to say - to make to you before I finish the Chuzzlewit, which is very selfish, for it will give the book a new interest in my eyes. But I will defer it, and all questions concerning the charities into which I have made enquiry for you, until you have more leisure for such subjects. I am sure this ancient Year must have been a very arduous one to you; and but for such occupations being their own reward, would have wearied you to a serious extent;" adding, in a postscript, "You will be glad to hear, I know, that my Carol is a prodigious success."
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