BIB_ID
420765
Accession number
MA 1352.129
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1848 November 1.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.1 x 10.9 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 on mourning stationery from "Devonshire Terrace / First November 1848 / Wednesday afternoon."
Written on mourning stationery from "Devonshire Terrace / First November 1848 / Wednesday afternoon."
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
Asking for her help in getting "the Brave Courier of my little Italian book [Louis Roche] - into St. George's Hospital;" saying that he could be admitted to the Brompton Hospital but they are not likely to have a bed in the next two or three months; enclosing a "medical description of his case, on which I have it much at heart to get him into St. George's Hospital forthwith. I don't know how to set about it. It has occurred to me that perhaps you may have some direct power of nominating him as a patient, and that if you have not, Mr. Brown (on whose good-feeling I know I may rely) will help me with his advice [...] His doctor urgently recommends his being got into a hospital where he will never be left alone (he is in a poor little lodging now), and I must accomplish it if it can be done."
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