BIB_ID
420652
Accession number
MA 1352.99
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1848 March 26.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.3 cm + envelope
Notes
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
A footnote to the published letter cited below identifies "Miss Brass" as "Clearly CD's and Miss Coutts's private name for one of the assistant Matrons at the Home, who reminded them - no doubt in her grimness - of Sally Brass." Sally Brass is a character in The Old Curiosity Shop.
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 / Sunday Morning Twenty Sixth March / 1848."
A footnote to the published letter cited below identifies "Miss Brass" as "Clearly CD's and Miss Coutts's private name for one of the assistant Matrons at the Home, who reminded them - no doubt in her grimness - of Sally Brass." Sally Brass is a character in The Old Curiosity Shop.
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 / Sunday Morning Twenty Sixth March / 1848."
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
Referring to a complaint made by "Miss Brass" "...that she never slept - on account of their being no bedstead for little Thomas. I dare say she may have mentioned the matter to you, but in case she should not have done so, I write you a line before going out of town to hint that Mrs. Holdsworth does not appear to have any particular chair in her eye. And really the state of grimness into which our friend must for ever fall if those eyes of hers (already very blunt and obdurate) are kept upon much longer, is dreadful to contemplate."
Catalog link
Department