BIB_ID
420579
Accession number
MA 1352.82
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1847 November 20.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 18.3 x 11.3 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Poste Restante / Boulogne / France."
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 / Twentieth November 1847. / Saturday."
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 / Twentieth November 1847. / Saturday."
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 the girls presently at the Home and the girls coming the following week and the week after; reporting that he hired a young assistant Matron "...a widow of six and twenty - very youthful looking - vitally interested in the project - of mild sweet manners - accustomed to teaching young people - and who has known great sorrow;" adding that he visited on the first night the young Assistant was at the Home "...with a pet canary of hers walking about the table, and the two girls deep in my account of the lesson books, and all the knowledge that was to be got out of them, as we were putting them away on the shelves;" adding that he would like to deliver a "...series of small evening lectures...in April when Dombey is done."
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