BIB_ID
421118
Accession number
MA 1352.242
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1851 December 22.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.6 x 11.2 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 from "Tavistock House / Monday Twenty Second December / 1851."
Envelope with Dickens' signature: "To be forwarded. / Miss Burdett Coutts." Endorsed on the verso, "When I was abroad 1851."
Written from "Tavistock House / Monday Twenty Second December / 1851."
Envelope with Dickens' signature: "To be forwarded. / Miss Burdett Coutts." Endorsed on the verso, "When I was abroad 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
Reporting on a visit to Shepherd's Bush to interview a widow whom he feels is worthy of encouragement and saying "...I had no doubt you would be disposed to send her abroad much sooner than usual, if you were satisfied with her general conduct and behaviour. That of course she must understand that whatever she was required to do in the Home, she was to do with the rest on all occasions;" commenting on "a most singular lie in Charlotte Glyn, who persists in representing herself as 13 years old [...] It is needless to say that it's ridiculous impossibility is self evident [...] when I first saw her at the Ragged School Teacher's in Newgate Street, I find that she stated herself to be then 15. I have no doubt it was her real age;" expressing his concern about the "pilfering propensities" of Mary Anne Church and the "phaenomonon of slyness" in Elizabeth Hogg; saying he has updated the Case Book accordingly; enclosing "Charley's papers, and a testimonial that Mr. Evans sent me from one of the Masters."
Catalog link
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