BIB_ID
421086
Accession number
MA 1352.234
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Broadstairs, England, 1851 July 24.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.0 cm
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 "Broadstairs, Kent / Thursday Twenty Fourth July / 1851."
Written on mourning stationery from "Broadstairs, Kent / Thursday Twenty Fourth July / 1851."
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
Expressing his frustration with the bookkeeper at the publishing house who sent Miss Coutts books on approval and did not keep a list of what was sent; saying "I really don't see how we can help him, even if the dismal apprehension that has seized upon your mind should be well-founded. But I should think, his memory would be greatly refreshed by some of the other wholesale houses that supplied the books, if he were to make any great mistake in the matter. It is raining here, in the most forlorn manner!"
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