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:

1841-1850

Theme(s):

Urania Cottage

charity

To WILLIAM ELLIS,1 30 APRIL 1849

MS Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Reverend William Ellis

8 Grafton Street

Piccadilly

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE,

Thirtieth April 1849.

My Dear Sir

Miss Coutts2 has communicated with me, in reference to the case – proposed for admission into the Home3 – in which you are kindly interested.

I should like to have a few words of conversation with you on the subject, and to suggest to you why I rather fear it would do better in another kind of Institution. Would it be convenient to you if I called on you at 12 on Wednesday?4 In case you should have any engagement for that time, I shall be at home at 5 tomorrow afternoon, but I shall be very happy to call upon you as I have proposed, if that will do.

My Dear Sir

Faithfully Yours

CHARLES DICKENS

The Reverend William Ellis.

1. William Ellis (1794-1872), missionary and author.
2. Angela Georgina Burdett Coutts (1814-1906), youngest child of Sir Francis Burdett and Sophia, daughter of Thomas Coutts, the banker. After inheriting the fortune of her maternal grandfather in 1837 she devoted her life to philanthropy. She met CD in 1838 or 1839, and the two became lifelong friends. CD recommended and administered many of her philanthropic projects, including ragged schools, and Urania Cottage.
3. Urania Cottage, the home for former prostitutes in Shepherd’s Bush, founded in 1847.
4. ‘Tuesday’ cancelled; ‘Wednesday’ added over the caret.