Letter from Charles Dickens, London, to Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1852 December 3 : autograph manuscript signed.

Reporting, at length, on the state of the Westminster Project; relating the results of the survey of the property "...which stand[s] in great need of efficient drainage, connected with good water supply. This district includes rather less than a third (at a rough calculation) of the whole district; and the estimates for the necessary improvements make the total cost (for 150 houses) £420;" discussing, in detail, his plan to go to the largest owner of the houses in question, and then later to the others, to persuade them to pay for "the permanent improvement of their property," assisted by Miss Burdett-Coutts; adding that he believes, along with Mr. Austin and Dr. Southwood Smith, that the Commissioners of Sewers would sanction the project; reporting on the Home and saying that he paid "...the bills for last month" and recommends a new girl: "The girl comes from a bad school (where I dreamed my first dreams of authorship when I was six years old or so), namely Chatham, and I think she may be of rather a shrewish temper, but it is undoubtedly a case to make trial of, and I have given Mrs. Morson instructions to fetch the girl" (see MA 1352.543); relating news of Charley's departure from school and the fees Charley paid on leaving; expressing his hope that "...Mrs. Brown continues to do well...I look forward to sending you next week, a week or more before its publication, the extra Christmas No. of Household Words. It has cost me some pains, and I think is very pretty."