BIB_ID
420456
Accession number
MA 1352.393
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1854 December 26.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; x cm + envelope
Notes
Signed with initials.
Written from "Tavistock House."
Envelope with stamp and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Holly Lodge / Highgate."
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."
Envelope with stamp and postmarks: "Miss Burdett Coutts / Holly Lodge / Highgate."
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
Wishing her "[m]any many merry Christmases and Happy New Years;" inviting her on behalf of his wife and himself to come see "the children's Fairy-play [...] Fortunio and his seven gifted Servants;" mentioning that he is heading to Bradford but will be back for the anniversary dinner of the Commercial Travellers' Schools on Saturday; saying that his reading of A Christmas Carol in Reading was "a most rapturous affair" and sending her an account of it; writing in a postscript that he wishes she could see the children rehearsing for the play, "and the gravity and business of the proceedings."
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