BIB_ID
420473
Accession number
MA 1352.62
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Lausanne, Switzerland, 1846 October 5.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages, with address) ; 22.3 x 18.5 cm
Notes
Address panel with seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Angleterre / Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
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 "Rosemont, Lausanne. / Fifth October 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 "Rosemont, Lausanne. / Fifth October 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
Explaining that his attempts to answer her concerns [regarding her proposed Asylum for Women] have been difficult and "...I thought it best not to try any more - feeling assured that your kindness and consideration would attribute my silence, just now, to the right cause;" recommending several people for her to consult including the clergyman of the Westminster Prison; adding "The locality you suggest is a central and good one. But you would require to have a place attached, for exercise. Have you thought of that? The cultivation of little gardens, if they be no bigger than graves, is a great resource and a great reward. It has always been found to be productive of good effects wherever it has been tried; and I earnestly hope you will be able to make it a part of your training;" saying he will let her know when he will be in London and suggesting she read "...a pamphlet descriptive of Captain Macconochie's plan : some modification of which, I am so strongly inclined to commend for adoption;" adding "I am only half through my Christmas Book, for which I have a little notion that I should have been very glad indeed to have retained for a longer story, as it is necessarily very much contracted in its development in so small a space. I hear that the Dombey has been launched with great success. and was out of print on the first night;" sending regards from Mrs. Dickens and telling her that "Charley has won a Geneva watch by speaking French in three months. I rashly pledged myself to make that desperate present in the event of his succeeding - and as he has succeeded, I mean to go over to Geneva with him in great state, and endow him with his prize in as solemn a manner as I can possibly confer it. I think of enclosing it in a pathetic epistle. He sends his love, and says he means to distinguish himself at King's College;" expressing his hope that Mr. and Mrs. Brown are well and adding "I don't wish Mrs. Brown would be ill again, but I wish she would do something, which would lead to her suggesting another character to me, as serviceable as Mrs. Gamp."
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