BIB_ID
421298
Accession number
MA 1352.283
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Liverpool, England, 1852 September 2.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 20.2 x 12.5 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 the "Adelphi Hotel Liverpool / Thursday Evening Second September / 1852."
Envelope with postmark and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
Written from the "Adelphi Hotel Liverpool / Thursday Evening Second September / 1852."
Envelope with postmark and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
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
Expressing concern for Mrs. Brown's health; writing about his "sanitary Institution," a dinner in Manchester, the opening of the Free Library at Manchester and the performance of his farce; explaining that she cannot subscribe to the sanitary institution [The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes], but must be a shareholder; saying "You are only responsible to the extent of your shares. The object in this, is, to assist the poor to help themselves, and not to pauperize them. I will cause the papers descriptive of the Society, to be sent to you. I have no doubt of its being worthy of support;" commenting on the success of the Guild dinner and saying "...I have a more fervent hope than ever, of setting right at last what is very wrong in my calling. I have the object so deeply at heart, and so strongly feel the advantage I have in my present power in such matters (which involves a great duty) that I am in a desperate earnestness that I think must produce something. I am afraid you hardly think with me now - but you will. I wish you could have seen the opening of the Free Library for the people, at Manchester today. Such a noble effort, so wisely and modestly made; so wonderfully calculated to keep one part of that awful machine, a great working town, in harmony with the other! We acted - not the dismal Comedy, but Used Up and the Farce - to some 4000 people last night, and finish here tomorrow night;" adding that he will call on her when he returns to London to "...ask after Mrs. Brown."
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