The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To FREDERIC BRINE,1 20 AUGUST 1858 

Text from facsimile in Jarndyce online catalogue, Oct 2020. 

Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool2

Friday Twentieth August | 1858 

Dear Sir

            I am very truly obliged to you for your kind and hospitable letter. Unfortunately, the fatigues of my hurried tour are so great and its work so hard,3 that I find all social pleasures to be incompatible with them, and am forced to forego all engagements and invitations. But I beg to assure you that I am not the less sensible of your cordial remembrance, and that I heartily thank you for it.

            Dear Sir

                        Very faithfully Yours

                        CHARLES DICKENS

Captain Brine

• 1. Frederic Brine (1829-90), Captain in the Royal Engineers. Served in the Crimean War, including the siege and fall of Sevastopol; attained the rank of Major-General before retiring in 1884.
• 2. CD was in Liverpool from 18-21 Aug, before crossing the Irish Sea for engagements in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. On the evening of 20 Aug he read, at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall, The Poor Traveller, Boots at the Holly Tree Inn and Mrs Gamp. It proved a particular high spot in the tour, with Dickens remarking to his sub-editor W.H. Wills the following morning, 'Last night, we had the greatest house, both in numbers and money, we have ever had: London included' (Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 630).
• 3. CD delivered four readings in Liverpool, on 18, 19, 20 and 21 Aug; his first reading tour outside London extended from 2 Aug to 13 Nov 1858.