The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To ELIZABETH COLLINGS & SONS,1 10 AUGUST 1848 

Replaces extract in Pilgrim Letters 5, p. 388.

MS Jonathan Allright. 

Broadstairs, Kent2

Tenth August 1848 

            Mr Charles Dickens sends his compliments to Elizabeth Collings and Sons, and begs to enclose a cheque (crossed) for the amount of their account.3 The wine can be binned4 on Saturday morning.

• 1. Wine coopers, 30 Seething Lane, Tower Street, London.
• 2. CD rented a house at Chandos Place, sending the children ahead and arriving in Broadstairs on 29 July. He made frequent trips back to London, and finally returned on 3 Oct 1848.
• 3. A cheque for "Collins & Sons" for £4.9s.6d cleared CD’s bank account on 23 Aug 1848 (MS Messrs Coutts).
• 4. "Binning" is the storing (by laying down) of newly-bottled wine or Champagne in bins, at a uniform temperature, for the purpose of aging.