BIB_ID
421154
Accession number
MA 1352.257
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
London, England, 1852 March 17.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.2 cm
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 / Wednesday Seventeenth March / 1852."
Written from "Tavistock House / Wednesday Seventeenth 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
Explaining "a most ridiculous mistake I have made in accepting your kind invitation for Tuesday;" explaining that he had forgotten an engagement but was reminded of it by his sister-in-law who "...arrested me with a sudden reminder that appalled me;" adding that he is "...doubly bound to my unfortunate dinner because my engager is my Household Words Sub-Editor - and if he, or that staff, could suppose their punctual and orderly chief, capable of such a mistake, I tremble to think of the consequences!"
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