BIB_ID
420084
Accession number
MA 1352.42
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1844 December 8.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages, with address) ; 22.6 x 18.4 cm
Notes
Address panel with fragments of a seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Bolton 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.
Written from "Piazza Coffee House, Covent Garden / Sunday December Eighth 1844."
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 "Piazza Coffee House, Covent Garden / Sunday December Eighth 1844."
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
Concerning a destitute family for whom he is advocating and details of his time in Italy; apologizing for not seeing her during his time in London but explaining that all his time has been taken with the printers for his Christmas Book; saying "I hope you will like those Chimes, which will be published on the 16th. and though I am not malicious, I am bent on making you cry, or being most horribly disappointed;" thanking her for her "munificent donation" to the Sanatorium Committee; mentioning that she might have seen "... a Preface I wrote, before leaving England, to a little book by a Working Man; and may have learned from the newspaper that he is dead; leaving a destitute wife and six children, of whom one is a Cripple;" relating what he has done to help the eldest boy, asking if she might offer her help to one of the girls and providing a list of the names, ages and the address of the children; describing where he and his family are staying in Genoa and relating details of his travels in Italy; saying "I never could have believed, and never did imagine, the full splendour and glory of Venice. That wonderful dream! The three days that I passed there, were like a Thousand and One Arabian Nights, wildly exaggerated a thousand and one times;" adding that he will be in Paris for a few days and asked if there was anything he could do for her while he was there.
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