BIB_ID
421089
Accession number
MA 1352.237
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Broadstairs, England, 1851 August 22.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (6 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 "Broadstairs, Kent. / Twenty Second August 1851."
Mourning envelope with postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
Written on mourning stationery from "Broadstairs, Kent. / Twenty Second August 1851."
Mourning envelope with 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
Referring to correspondence with the Registrar of Merchant Seamen (see MA 1352.236) and to her "Hieroglyphic Suggestion;" commenting on the "Irish Ruffians," the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Church and the Government; saying "If we had had a bold Government, boldly setting right the abuses in the Church, twenty years ago, its strength at this moment would have been Sampson's to General Tom Thumb's - and if the Universities had been forced to adjust themselves to the character of the times, we never should have had to bless Oxford for the intolerable enormity it has dug out of the mire. Terrible things will be done and suffered, before we get out of this trouble. I believe it will produce the last great, long, direful War of the world;" reporting on Charley and adding that he is going to send Walter "...to a Mr. Trimmer at Putney who educates expressly for Addiscombe and India. I don't think he is so clever as Charley, but he is a very steady amiable boy, of a good reliable capacity, and brings exalted certificates from Mr. King;" asking her to write him about the ship and adding "I presume you will prefer the next good one after this mentioned in the note?"
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