BIB_ID
420813
Accession number
MA 1352.143
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1849 January 27.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.1 x 11.0 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 / Twenty Seventh Janry 1849."
Written on mourning stationery from "Devonshire Terrace / Twenty Seventh Janry 1849."
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 Miss Cunliffe's lack of suitability for the job; saying "I am sorry to say that I have been brooding very gloomily over our Shepherd's Bush prospects. All possible deductions and allowances made, it is quite clear to me that Miss Cunliffe is a woman of an atrocious temper, and that she violently mistakes her office and its functions. I do not descry any prospect of our keeping the young women in the house, when she has the sole charge of them. The idea of hectoring and driving them, is the most ignorant and the most fatal that could be possibly entertained. I am quite confident she will bring about such an outbreak as we have not had there."
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