BIB_ID
421143
Accession number
MA 1352.254
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1852 March 5.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.2 cm
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 from "Tavistock House / Friday Fifth March 1852."
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 / Friday Fifth March 1852."
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
Enclosing a letter from Mr. Hardwick's brother and asking for her opinion on the case; saying "It perplexes me, because it seems at first so strange that the woman should leave her child - unless she has a vague idea of having it bye and bye restored to her abroad, when she can support it, and be free from her present misery. I do not like to go and see her, without knowing your opinion. I have made enquiries into the case of the working Men, whose letter I return. There is no doubt of their being in great distress, but I fear there is no doubt too of their being quite wrong in supposing it possible, to proceed without the assistance of Capital. Their masters may be to blame in some things; but their general charge against them about the reduction of wages is a blind mistake of suffering men. These workmen have fallen behind the time; they are in many respects extra-ordinarily difficult men to deal with; and what they propose to do, I believe to be impossible. I am assured that they are quite astray in their business, and that this manufacturing warehouse of theirs presents a very hopeless spectacle. There is no doubt (let me say again) of their being very poor and distressed. I enclose Mr. Claxton's letters. I have made for next week's No., what I hope you may think an interesting little chip. I have called it, The Fine Arts in Australia."
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