The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To FRIEDRICH HEINRICH GEFFCKEN,1 31 MAY 1857

MS Hamburger Theatersammlung.

Tavistock House | Dimanche 31 Mai, 1857.

M. Charles Dickens presente2 ses compliments à M. Geffcken. Il vient de reçevoir la carte de M. Geffcken, en arrivant a sa maison en ville. M. Charles Dickens regrette extremement qu’il va partir incessament pour la campagne,3 y passer l’eté; et qu’il ne reviendra pas a Londres, jusqua Novembre. M. Marcellin de Fresne4 dit dans sa lettre confiée aux soins de M. Geffcken, que M. Geffcken desire savoir l’addresse de M. Macready. Il reste toujours à la campagne—à Sherborne House, Sherborne, Dorsetshire. 

• 1. Presumably Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken (1830-96), diplomat and jurist; attached to the Prussian legation in Paris, 1854-6; Hanseatic Minister-resident in London, 1866-8.
• 2. Here and throughout the letter, the French reproduced as in MS.
• 3. CD spent the summer at Gad’s Hill.
• 4. Not certainly identified. Possibly connected to the Chevalier de Fresne, whom Macready knew well in Paris, 1834 (Diaries, I, 143 & n), or to the de Fresne (if not identical with the Chevalier) CD was avoiding in Paris, 1850 (To Mrs CD, [24 June 50], Pilgrim Letters 6, p. 116, where de Fresne is not certainly identified).