The Charles Dickens Letters Project

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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:

1836-1840

Theme(s):

celebrity

testimonials

To DR THOMSON1 [1840]

Text from facsimile in Argosy Books online catalogue, Oct 2020.
Date: after CD's move to Devonshire Terrace in December 1839, but before Thomson's move to Scotland in 1841.

1 Devonshire Terrace.
Sunday Morning

Mr Charles Dickens presents his compliments to Doctor Thomson, and begs to recommend to him Mr Alfred Collinson,2 a young gentleman who is a candidate for the situation of apothecary to the Holloway and North London Dispensary.3 Mr Dickens owes a great many apologies to Dr Thomson for giving him this trouble, but as he is interested in Mr Collinson's success,4 and is quite sure that the gentlemen with whom the choice rests have no wishes but to appoint a deserving and clever young man, he ventures to hope that Dr Thomson will excuse him.

1. Probably Robert Dundas Thomson MD (1810-64); prominent figure in medicine, chemistry and public health, with a practice at 41 York Terrace, Regent’s Park. Assisted in establishing the Blenheim Street Infirmary and Free Dispensary, c.1835.
2. Alfred Collinson (1815-72); obtained licence from the Society of Apothecaries 1839; MRCS 1842; MD Aberdeen 1856.
3. The Holloway and North Islington Dispensary, founded as a charitable dispensary in 1821; new premises opened 1840 in Francis Place, Holloway. CD naming is inaccurate.
4. It is not known whether Collinson was appointed.