BIB_ID
421152
Accession number
MA 1352.527
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1850 January 5?.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.1 cm + envelope
Notes
Dickens gives only "Saturday Night" for the date of writing. Based on internal evidence and other letters from this period (see particularly MA 1352.183), it was most likely written on January 5, 1850. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Written from "Devonshire Terrace."
Envelope with seal: "Miss Burdett Coutts."
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 "Devonshire Terrace."
Envelope with seal: "Miss Burdett Coutts."
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.
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
Saying that she is right about John Hullah's account, and that he was in the wrong; adding that he has checked his memorandum and now finds not only "what it was intended for, but what it accurately tallies with;" confirming that Charley's cake ("a most splendid one") arrived an hour ago: "He and his two sisters instantly celebrated the event by putting it on a table and dancing a polka round it;" mentioning in a postscript that Maria Cridge will be back in a week and reporting that the results of Mrs. Morson's inquiries about her at St. Bartholomew's Hospital were "most satisfactory."
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