BIB_ID
420140
Accession number
MA 1352.55
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1846 April 22.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.7 x 11.0 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal 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 / Wednesday Twenty Second April / 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 / Wednesday Twenty Second April / 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
Reporting on his visits with Dr. Jelf and Dr. Major and the plans for Charley's education; saying "Until within a fortnight or three weeks ago, I have retained the intention of entering Charley in May. But since then, I have conceived the idea of going to Switzerland for a year. First, because I am most desirous to separate myself in a marked way from the Daily News (with which I have long since ceased to have any connexion, and in connecting myself with which at all, I have no doubt I made a mistake). Secondly, because I have a long book to write, which I could write better in retirement. Thirdly because I want to get up some Mountain knowledge in all the four seasons of the year, for purposes of fiction. Now I think that if I go to Lausanne or some such place, where there are English Clergymen who take pupils, and keep Charley in good training under such auspices, he will enter King's College at greater advantage and with a better prestige about him, than if he began as I originally designed. I have not said anything to Dr. Major or to Charley yet, as I wished to tell you what I had in my mind first. But I have a very strong belief that I shall be all the better for acting on this resolution, and I should be glad if you thought with me that Charley would be none the worse."
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