The Charles Dickens Letters Project

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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:

1861-1870

Theme(s):

travel

public readings

railway

To SAMUEL LACK MASON,1 14 DECEMBER 1868

Text from facsimile in Jarndyce Dickens catalogue CLXV, 2005.

Kennedy’s Hotel, Prince’s Street

Monday Night Fourteenth December | 1868

Dear Sir

I beg to assure you that I am truly sensible of the kindness and courtesy of your letter received to-night, and that I thank you for it cordially. It will be a great comfort to me to avail myself of your most obliging offer2 next Saturday night, by the 10 p.m. Train from here to King’s Cross.

Samuel L. Mason Esquire

Faithfully Yours

CHARLES DICKENS

1. Samuel Lack Mason (1837-1889), General Manager of the North British Railway, operators of the east coast route in Scotland.
2. Mason, after attending a reading (presumably that of 11 Dec), arranged for a saloon carriage to be brought from King’s Cross for CD’s return to London, as more “convenient for sleeping in” than those available in Edinburgh: see To Hogarth, 18 Dec 68, Pilgrim Letters 12, p. 251.