BIB_ID
421036
Accession number
MA 1352.216
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Broadstairs, England, 1850 September 15.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.2 cm + envelope
Notes
Signed with initials.
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 "Broadstairs / Sunday Fifteenth September 1850."
Envelope with seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
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 "Broadstairs / Sunday Fifteenth September 1850."
Envelope with seal, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
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 receipt of her Registered Letter about a teacher, Miss Payne, from the Field Lane Ragged School, and an inmate, Mary Anne Wilson, that they accepted from the school; expressing the "...consternation into which I was thrown by the arrival of that Registered Letter - not imagining you would take that trouble for such a purpose - defies description. I would suggest the admission of Miss Payne on regular visiting days - perhaps a little oftener - but not to teach in any way. Miss P to be pledged to abstinence. Mary Anne Wilson, the girl you mean, told me (which none of the others did) The Truth; I mean the whole Truth. Therefore, notwithstanding her Visage, I have hopes of her. I was struck by her manner of doing so, which was / GOOD / (I put that in a line by itself, for emphasis). You have received, I hope, a quantity of childrens' books for examination."
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