BIB_ID
421072
Accession number
MA 1352.227
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1851 February 10.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.7 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 / Tenth February 1851."
Envelope with postmark and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly."
Written from "Devonshire Terrace / Tenth February 1851."
Envelope with postmark and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly."
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
Apologizing for not seeing her and explaining "I should have been at your house before now, but for constant occupation that has held me all day, every day - and a cold that has made me a snivelling phaenomonon. By way of curing it, I am running off to Paris, for a Household Words purpose, by the Mail train tonight;" saying that he will call on her when he returns; adding, in a postscript, "I have lost the house at Highgate - outbidden, by what the Agent called 'another party.'"
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