Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Charles Dickens, London, to Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1854 January 4 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
420116
Accession number
MA 1352.352
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1854 January 4.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Written from "Tavistock House."
Signed with initials.
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
Informing her at length about the case of Rhena Pollard, a woman who wanted to leave Urania Cottage; describing Pollard's change of heart and how he and Mrs. Morson handled the matter, which involved reading a letter of warning to all the inhabitants of the Home; writing "I think you will approve of the wretched young creature's having one more chance in this bitter weather -- but in a just remembrance of what is due to the Home and its Supporter, I could not have given it to her, if she had been other than a stranger in London, and an utterly friendless speck in the world;" remarking the snow is two feet deep in the streets today.