BIB_ID
421077
Accession number
MA 1352.512
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Higham, England, 1858 September 6.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18 x 11.4 cm + envelope
Notes
Written on stationery with engraved letterhead: "Gad's Hill Place, / Higham by Rochester, Kent."
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.
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.
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
Saying that he has returned home "after great fatigue (and great success, thank God!) in Ireland," though he is staying at Gad's Hill for only forty-eight hours; mentioning that Charley has come to see him and has said that he believes this is the time "in which a word of reminder at Baring Brothers, from a good source, might lead to his removal before long into one of their business opportunities out of London, no matter where, which would present a better opening than London does, to a young man of such capacity, education, and energy, as he possesses;" asking if she would put in a good word with Joshua Bates; explaining his discomfort with asking on his account: "What a private gentleman need not scruple to do, my consciousness of my own notoriety shrinks from. I have a dread of seeming to force it on attention, when I desire nothing more than to be as quiet and modest under it as possible. Hence it is that I trouble you!"; adding that he is "as strong and well as if I had been doing nothing;" sending his love to Hannah Brown.
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