Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Charles Dickens, London, to Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1848 May 23 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
420665
Accession number
MA 1352.105
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1848 May 23.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.3 cm
Notes
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 Twenty Third May / 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
Discussing Sally (the assistant Matron), Mrs. Graves and Miss Cunliffe; saying of Sally "I am sorry for her, - but I must say I think she is less adapted to the situation than anything else in the human form of which I have any idea. It strikes me that Mrs. Graves must walk without knowing why, and that everybody else must walk after her. Miss Cunliffe was here yesterday. I like her very much. There is something in her face, exceedingly agreeable and promising, and she improves greatly on being talked to [...] I think she promises very well indeed, and I feel an interest in her."