The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To HENRY D. PALMER,1 2 DECEMBER 1869

Text from the Ladies’ Theatrical Bouquet, 8 Jan 1870. Address (envelope only, MS Free Library of Philadelphia): Henry D. Palmer Esquire | Langham Hotel | Regent Street | W. PM London 2 Dec 69.

GAD’S HILL PLACE,

HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.

Thursday, 2nd Dec. 1869.

My Dear Mr. Palmer,

I must congratulate you this morning on your having arranged everything yesterday so satisfactor[il]y with Mr. Fechter,2 the rather, as I never saw him act better than he did last night.3 I hope that you and Mr. Jarrett4 (to whom I send my kind remembrance,) will find this enterprise thoroughly successful, and that it will be a pleasant recollection to all of us.

Believe me, | Faithfully yours,

 CHARLES DICKENS

Henry D. Palmer Esq.

• 1. Henry David Palmer, proprietor of the Westminster Theatre, New York, and joint-owner and manager of Niblo’s Theatre; well-known as opera and theatre impresario: see Pilgrim Letters 11, p. 498n. Palmer was in London (see envelope to this letter, headnote above & Pilgrim Letters 12, p. 448), partly to settle the terms of Fechter’s American tour.
• 2. Charles Albert Fechter (1824-79; Dictionary of National Biography), actor: see Pilgrim Letters 9, p. 450n. Fechter and Palmer had met at the All the Year Round office to formalise the American tour agreement, 1 Dec (To Palmer, 25 Nov 69), where they were “a company of Doves” after CD’s fears that Fechter would injure himself by refusing Palmer’s terms (To Hogarth, 2 Dec 69): for the terms, see Pilgrim Letters 12, pp. 384n and 438.
• 3. Fechter was playing a twelve-night engagement (29 Nov – 11 Dec) in his most famous roles before his departure for the United States. On 1 Dec he played Claude Melnotte in Bulwer- Lytton’s The Lady of Lyons.
• 4. Henry Clay Jarrett, joint-owner of Niblo’s Theatre with Palmer.