The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To MARION ELY,1 2 DECEMBER 1844

Text from facsimile on the website of John Wilson Manuscripts Ltd. Address: Miss Ely | 56 Russell Square.

Piazza Coffee House2 

Monday December Second 1844

My Dear Miss Ely.

The sight of your familiar and graceful hand did me scarcely less good last night, than the sight of your something more than graceful face had done me in the morning. I shall be delighted to dine in Russell Square on Saturday; and beg my sincerest regards to all belonging there.3  

Believe me Ever / Faithfully Yours 

 CHARLES DICKENS

Miss Ely.  

• 1. Marion Elizabeth Ely (1820-1913), daughter of Charles Ely and Sara, née Rutt; niece of Rachel Talfourd (1792-1875), wife of CD's friend Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854).
• 2. George Cuttriss’s Piazza Coffee House and Hotel, Covent Garden (North Side). CD was in London, 30 Nov-8 Dec, having travelled from Genoa where he was living with his family, to oversee the printing of The Chimes; he also gave two readings of the Christmas Book, 3 and 5 December: see Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 234 n6. Richard Barham noted on 5 Dec that CD read The Chimes “with remarkable effect...from the proofs” (Life and Letters of the Rev. Richard Harris Barham...by his Son, 1870, II, 191).
• 3. The Talfourd family.