BIB_ID
420134
Accession number
MA 1352.52
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1846 March 13.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.0 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett 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 / Thirteenth March 1846."
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 / Thirteenth March 1846."
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
Advocating on behalf of "Actors at Country and Minor Theatres" and reporting on the progress of Miss Elton and Miss White; saying "The 'General Theatrical Fund' at whose dinner I am going to preside, have begged me to give the accompanying letter to you - in some remembrance, I presume of my having represented you in the matter of your public subscription for the Elton Family. You will not misunderstand me as having any lawless designs on your purse, if I discharge my conscience of the statement that this Fund includes the Actors at Country and Minor Theatres, who cannot by any exertions, in the present and altered state of theatrical matters, qualify themselves for either of the other Funds - who are very poor, generally speaking - and have established this one with a patience and long foresight most remarkable to me. You will be pleased to hear that the eldest Miss Elton is Mistress of a large National School at Mitcham; with a pretty house and garden, and everything happy about her, as she well deserves. Miss Wight (White, I think it should be) is quite recovered, and has obtained a situation as Companion to an old lady."
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