BIB_ID
421083
Accession number
MA 1352.232
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1851 April 17.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.0 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 on mourning stationery from "Devonshire Terrace / Thursday Night / Seventeenth April 1851." Dickens' daughter, Dora, died April 14, 1851 at the age of eight months.
Envelope with Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street."
Written on mourning stationery from "Devonshire Terrace / Thursday Night / Seventeenth April 1851." Dickens' daughter, Dora, died April 14, 1851 at the age of eight months.
Envelope with 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 death of his daughter Dora; saying "Our poor little Dora! - I had just been playing with her, and went to preside at a Public Dinner to which I was pledged. Before it was over - even before they sang the Grace - she was dead. I had left her well and gay. My servant came down with the sad news, but they kept it from me until the meeting was over. Mrs. Dickens was at Malvern. By bringing her to town on a pretence of the poor little pet's being hopelessly ill, we made the shock as gradual as we could. She is as well as I could hope, and begs me to say so to you and to thank you earnestly. We laid the child in her grave today. And it is a part of the goodness and mercy of God that if we could call her back to life, now, with a wish, we would not do it."
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