The Charles Dickens Letters Project

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Correspondent

How to cite:

Individual letter:

Dickens, Charles. To [addressee], [date of letter]. Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship). [URL of individual letter], [date of access].

Database:

Charles Dickens Letters Project, ed. Leon Litvack, Emily Bell, Lydia Craig and Jeremy Parrott (London: Dickens Fellowship), DickensLetters.com.

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Period:

1841-1850

Theme(s):

friends

family

To CATHERINE CHARLOTTE BEARD1

MS (fragment)

Date: Signature suggests early 1840s

by forcing my liberty upon him.2

Kate3 and her sister4 unite in love to you;5 and send their best regards to all your house.6

Believe me always | Dear Miss Beard | Faithfully Yours

CHARLES DICKENS

1. Catherine Charlotte Beard (1809-93), eldest sister of CD’s friend Thomas Beard (1807-91). She regularly socialised with the Dickens family; see, for example, To Beard, 16 & 21 July 1842 (Pilgrim Letters 3, pp. 273, 276), and 10 June 1844 (Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 143)
2. Presumably refers to a social engagement involving CD and Charlotte Beard's brother Thomas.
3. Catherine Dickens (née Hogarth, 1815-79), CD's wife.
4. Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917), CD's sister-in-law.
5. For another instance of Catherine's and Georgina's sending their love to Catherine Beard see To Thomas Beard, 10 June 1844 (Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 143).
6. Catherine Beard lived with her brother and parents at 42 Portman Place, Edgware Road.