BIB_ID
420912
Accession number
MA 1352.176
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1849 December 7.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.1 cm + envelope
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 / Friday Night, Sixth December / 1849." The published letter, cited below, states that Dickens misdated the letter and that Friday was December 7th in 1849.
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
A footnote in the published letter cited below explains the offer Miss Coutts made to Dickens with respect to Charley, saying "Her offer to nominate him for an East India Company cadetship after Eton, rather than to find him a commission in a British Regiment. The plan for an Army career was soon dropped."
Written from "Devonshire Terrace / Friday Night, Sixth December / 1849." The published letter, cited below, states that Dickens misdated the letter and that Friday was December 7th in 1849.
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
A footnote in the published letter cited below explains the offer Miss Coutts made to Dickens with respect to Charley, saying "Her offer to nominate him for an East India Company cadetship after Eton, rather than to find him a commission in a British Regiment. The plan for an Army career was soon dropped."
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 her suggestion for Charley's education; saying "I have given the best consideration (as you may suppose) that I could possibly give, to the alternative you so kindly mentioned to me on Sunday, for Charley. I hope my anxiety may not have obscured my judgment, but I think his first destination, better than Cadetship. I need not explain to you that my position is too public and prominent a one, to leave me much hope of ever being rich. I cannot but consider, mainly, in what position Charley would be most likely to be of service to his sisters if I were dead. I think he would be far more likely to have a beneficial influence on them, and on all who might have to look up to him to sustain their name in honor and respect, if he took the chances of being within reach which a regiment of the line would give him, than if he went for so many years to India;" setting forth his reasons for why he would be better suited to a career in "our Army" and adding "I think his ability would be likely to stand him in better stead here, than in India. His education and companions would be of more use to him, too, here, than there. Lastly, I think his life would be (under God) infinitely safer and more to be hoped for, - as he, and all our children, have shewn, so far, a peculiar sensitiveness to heat when the English summer has come around. I am so sure of your generous interest understanding, on a mere hint, all I would say, that I say not a tithe of what I think. If I had any reason to believe that you have the least inclination towards the Cadetship in preference to the other idea, I should feel an uneasiness in coming to this conclusion, though I must still think it the right one. But I do not understand that to be the case. I shall be very, very, glad, if you, on consideration think with me;" suggesting, in a postscript, that he take the Mark Papers home with him every week and judge whether Mrs. Morson was "doing right, and, if not, where she was wrong."
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