BIB_ID
421542
Accession number
MA 1352.637
Creator
Chesterton, George Laval.
Display Date
London, England, 1848 October 21.
Credit line
Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 18.1 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Written from "Cold Bath Fields," referring to Coldbath Fields Prison in Clerkenwell, London. Chesterton was Governor of the Middlesex House of Corrections, Coldbath Fields.
The part of the letter containing the signature has been cut away, with considerable loss of text. Based on the place of writing and the contents, Storey and Fielding identify the writer as Chesterton. This letter was enclosed in a letter from Dickens to Miss Coutts dated October 26, 1848, which has been cataloged as MA 1352.128. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
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.
The part of the letter containing the signature has been cut away, with considerable loss of text. Based on the place of writing and the contents, Storey and Fielding identify the writer as Chesterton. This letter was enclosed in a letter from Dickens to Miss Coutts dated October 26, 1848, which has been cataloged as MA 1352.128. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
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.
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
Reporting on a visit to Urania Cottage; describing a conflict between the residents (particularly Rubina Waller and Jane Westaway) and Mrs. Furze, assistant Matron at the Home; saying that he came down on the side of the residents: "In the course of my examination of Mrs. Furze I found her ignorant, ill-tempered manifestly, and presumptuous. She really does aspire to the same privileges and rank as Mrs. Holdsworth, & asserted to me that Miss Coutts had told her there were to be 'no distinctions'. I was so much dissatisfied with her, that I rated her soundly, and told her I should communicate to you my estimate of her qualities. -- She is represented as a bad house-wife, utterly ignorant of cookery, and no great adept at the needle. Without method or judgment: detractive of her superiors, jealous of any mention of her own name, exclaiming shrewly, when she hears it, 'well what have you got to say about Mrs. Furze, now?'"
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