BIB_ID
421107
Accession number
MA 1352.239
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Broadstairs, England, 1851 August 26.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.0 cm + envelope
Notes
Signed with initials.
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 / Tuesday Twenty Sixth August 1851."
Mourning envelope with postage stamp, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Holly Lodge / Highgate / London."
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 / Tuesday Twenty Sixth August 1851."
Mourning envelope with postage stamp, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Holly Lodge / Highgate / 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
Expressing his continuing frustration concerning an emigrant ship; saying "If your former letter reduced me to despair, your registered letter, enclosing £40 and received this morning, drives me to my wits' end. The Ship sailed to Gravesend yesterday, and leaves Gravesend tomorrow morning. I don't know what to do - can do nothing! If I were not going to Bath tomorrow morning (as I am) I should still be quite incapable of arranging the matter in the time. Nor have I the least idea (as you don't tell me anything about it ) whether Mrs. Morson knows they are going. In a word, I never was so bewildered, mystified, stupefied, and stunned. It appears to me that my only course is to put the £40 in my desk, and conclude that the girls will go by the next available ship, until I hear from you. My condition is truly deplorable."
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