BIB_ID
420165
Accession number
MA 1352.368
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1854 March 17.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Signed with initials.
Written from "Tavistock House."
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 "Tavistock House."
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
Writing of his sorrow at the sudden death of Thomas Talfourd; saying that he heard the news from Mark Lemon and went directly to Talfourd's house, where at that point, they only knew that he had been taken ill; describing the two engagements they had had planned, one of them to visit Talfourd's grave ("He was very fond of it, he said, and accustomed himself to associate it with a day of rest"); sending her a short piece he had written about Talfourd for Household Words; saying that he is glad that Hannah Brown (referred to as "O") did not injure herself more seriously; asking if she might like to listen to the first part of a new story he is writing: "It contains the dawn of the idea and is not at all distressing -- yet;" offering to come read it to her any evening before it is due to be published; mentioning that a candidate for Urania Cottage has been referred to him by the Curate of Hammersmith.
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