BIB_ID
420605
Accession number
MA 1352.88
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1847 December 29.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 18.6 x 11.7 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "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 "Glasgow / Twenty Ninth December 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 "Glasgow / Twenty Ninth December 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 departure of Mrs. Fisher from the Institution; saying "I cannot but say that I greatly regret her departure, and that the cause of it, is extremely painful to me, as it involves a point, on which, though I have no sympathy whatever with her private opinions, I have a very strong feeling indeed - which is not yours. At the same time I have no doubt whatever, that she ought to have stated the fact of her being a Dissenter to me, before she was engaged; and I should then, before engaging her, have most certainly stated it to you. With these few words, and with the fullest sense of your very kind and considerate manner of making this change, I leave it;" commenting on the event of the previous evening: "My presidency went off with great success last night, and was a very grand scene indeed, attended by nearly four thousand people;" adding that he visited the prison in Glasgow "...and see exactly the same things here, that we are dealing with at Shepherd's Bush. Mrs. Dickens (who was taken ill on the Railroad, and couldn't go last night, after coming all this way) sends her kindest regards."
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