BIB_ID
421022
Accession number
MA 1352.208
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1850 August 1.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.2 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 / First August 1850."
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
Written from "Devonshire Terrace / First August 1850."
Envelope with seal and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
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
Concerning the identity of a Mr. De Lara: "I cannot find any one who knows Mr. De Lara. I have enquired among artists, great and small - among theatrical people - among the gentlemen engaged at Household Words, but who I should have thought almost certain to have some trace of such a man - but quite unsuccessfully. Of course I have been careful to give no clue to my reason for asking about him;" asking if he should make further inquiries; reporting on his visit to the Westminster Ragged School: "It is an awful place, in a maze of filth and squalor, so dense and deserted by all decency, that my apparition in those streets in whose heart it lies, brought out the people in a crowd. We were on a very good understanding, however, and some people to whom I talked, took occasion to admire my diamond ring. I left word for the master to come to me, but I greatly doubt our finding any cases there, that will do. They are so very low and wretched;" adding that he visited the Church and was pleased with "the little garden;" returning Mr. De Lara's letters.
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