BIB_ID
421302
Accession number
MA 1352.286
Creator
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
Display Date
Dover, England, 1852 September 14.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.0 x 11.3 cm + envelope
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 "Dover, Tuesday Night / Fourteenth September 1852."
Envelope with postage stamp, postmarks and Dickens' signature to "Miss Burdett Coutts / Stratton Street / Piccadilly / London."
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 "Dover, Tuesday Night / Fourteenth September 1852."
Envelope with postage stamp, postmarks 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
Commenting on the death of the Duke of Wellington: "I have just heard of what you will have been long prepared for, but what I fear will cause you, notwithstanding, some natural distress. I was walking at Walmer this afternoon, and little thought that the great old man was dying or dead. He had been a steady friend to an uncle of Mrs. Dickens who was Colonel of Engineers here; and his son left word, a little while ago, while we were at dinner, that the Duke was dead; discussing her approach to a sanitary project: "I believe that what you write about Westminster is the whole truth and force of that subject, and that there is no better way of doing good, or of preparing the great mass of mankind to think of the great doctrines of our Saviour. If I were to try to tell you what I foresee from your lending your aid to what is so practically and plainly christian with no fear of mistake, your modest way of looking at what you do would scarcely believe me. But you will live to see what comes of it, and that will be - here - your great reward;" saying that he asked to postpone his meeting with Mr. Stone (an architect) as "...I had so much to do with Bleak House...;" concluding "I am glad Southwood Smith will have an opportunity of considering Mrs. Brown's case. The results of a great man of that peculiar experience, must be useful in so delicate a matter - if only as confirming your faith in what is being done."
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