BIB_ID
420947
Accession number
MA 1352.185
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1850 January 14.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.1 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 / Fourteenth January 1850."
Mrs. Gaskell's letter of the 12th, enclosed by Dickens, is also part of this collection and has been cataloged separately as MA 1352.641.
Written from "Devonshire Terrace / Fourteenth January 1850."
Mrs. Gaskell's letter of the 12th, enclosed by Dickens, is also part of this collection and has been cataloged separately as MA 1352.641.
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
Sending her the letter he received from Mrs. Gaskell, "(to whom, with your permission, I sent the first sheet of your letter) by which you will see what she has done. She is perfectly discreet and modest, and I knew would take no advantage of your kindness;" telling her he took Charley to Eton, had dinner with his tutor, Reverend Cookesley, and saw William Evans; adding "I hope this note may be intelligible. But I am in such a state of imbecility from a bad cold, and am so little able to see the paper on account of the enormous size of my own head, that I am not at all clear about it."
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