BIB_ID
421153
Accession number
MA 1352.256
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1852 March 16.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 17.9 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 from "Tavistock House / Tuesday Sixteenth March 1852."
The proposal concerns the Nova Scotia Gardens in Bethnal Green.
Envelope with Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts" with the word "Wait" above her name and "Nova Scotia" written in an unknown hand above and to the right of her name.
Written from "Tavistock House / Tuesday Sixteenth March 1852."
The proposal concerns the Nova Scotia Gardens in Bethnal Green.
Envelope with Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts" with the word "Wait" above her name and "Nova Scotia" written in an unknown hand above and to the right of her name.
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
Commenting on the Nova Scotia proposals; saying "Before you sanction any plan of building, decidedly, I hope you will take Dr. Southwood Smith and Mr. Austin into consultation. I think you would save a great deal of money by doing so, and would get good sanitary arrangements on the most efficient and simple terms. The knowledge that the Board of Health has acquired of all these things, founded upon their personal inspection of the abodes of the poor in all parts of the country, is very important in such a work. I should not like to say this to Mr. Hardwick (knowing what tender corns architects usually have) but I have no doubt that your noble design would benefit by such a course. They know little (but most important) things, beforehand, which an architect would only find out, probably, by your experiencing the want of them when the building was done. I am happy to say that Mrs. Dickens and the seventh son - whom I cannot afford to receive with perfect cordiality, as on the whole I could have dispensed with him - are as well as possible, and in a most blooming state. I had been in an unsettled and anxious condition for a week or so, but may now shut myself up in Bleak House again. The Wonderful Lamp does its duty in the most splendid manner."
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