BIB_ID
420578
Accession number
MA 1352.81
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1847 November 9.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.3 x 11.3 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Hotel Bristol / Place Vendome / Paris."
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 / Tuesday Ninth November 1847."
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 / Tuesday Ninth November 1847."
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
Concerning the opening of the Institution; saying he has marked some prayers in the Book of Common Prayer for "temporary use" and reporting that one young woman, "...who has remained in prison three weeks voluntarily, is now there with Mrs. Holdsworth, and is making her own clothes. Her remaining in confinement so long, seemed to dispirit the others rather; and we therefore thought it best (as she seemed oppressed herself, too, by the continuance of the heavy discipline of the jail) to take her out yesterday and carry her to the Home. I went out to see her last evening at 9 o'Clock, and she expressed herself as being very happy and grateful."
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