The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To EMMA PENDER,1 18 JUNE 1863 

Text from facsimile in Peter Harrington Books online catalogue, Oct 2020.

OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND

Thursday Eighteenth June 1863 

Dear Mrs Pender

            I regret exceedingly that I cannot have the pleasure of dining with yourself and Mr Pender on Sunday. But I have a family party at Gad's Hill, and I shall have Mr Fechter2 there too. I am singularly unfortunate when you invite me.

            Pray let me thank you on behalf of my son,3 who I am sure will be much gratified by your kind remembrance.

                                    Believe me always

                                    Very faithfully Yours

                                    CHARLES DICKENS

Mrs Pender

• 1. Emma Pender (1816-90) née Denison, second wife of Sir John Pender (1816-96), Scottish textile merchant in Manchester, submarine communications cable pioneer, and politician, who organised work experience positions for CD's son Alfred (1845-1912) in the textile trade. See To Frederick Lehmann, Pilgrim Letters 10, p. 217.
• 2. Charles Albert Fechter (1824-79); actor and playwright. CD first saw him perform in 1856, and thought him one of the finest actors of his generation (see Pilgrim Letters 9, p. 405). The pair were close friends in the 1860s. On Fechter's accompanying CD to Gad's Hill for the party see To Georgina Hogarth, 20 June 1863, in Pilgrim Letters 10, p. 262.
• 3. Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (1845-1912), for whom Sir John Pender obtained work experience positions in the textile trade. See To Frederick Lehmann, 23 Feb 1863, in Pilgrim Letters 10, p. 217.