The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To HENRY GLASSFORD BELL,1 21 FEBRUARY 1866

Replaces catalogue extracts (aa) in Pilgrim Letters 12, p. 737.

MS Carol Chapman.

GAD’S HILL PLACE, | HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.

Wednesday Twenty First February 1866

My Dear Sir

I beg you to accept my cordial thanks for your acharming volume.2 I have read it with great pleasure and admiration, and with renewed remembrance of a certain elegant sandal-wood box3 that stands among my books.a Do not think me remiss in not having written to you sooner, for aI have been too unwell to do much.4a

My daughters (the younger of whom is married) beg me to send you their kind regard. aIt is not very unlikely that I may have the pleasure of seeing you in Glasgow5 before long.a

 Faithfully Yours alwys

 CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. Henry Glassford Bell (1803-74; Dictionary of National Biography), of Glasgow, sheriff and man of letters: see PIlgrim Letters 5, p. 428n.
• 2. Romances and Minor Poems, 1866, which was in CD’s library at his death (Catalogue of the Library of CD, ed. J. H. Stonehouse).
• 3. The History of a Sandal Wood Box: written by itself., priv. printed [1848]. Written by Mrs Bell for her daughters before her death in Dec 47: see PIlgrim Letters 5, ibid; not given in Stonehouse however.
• 4. CD’s heart seems to have been causing some anxiety at this time; Frank Beard (his doctor) had prescribed iron, quinine and digitalis earlier that month: see To Georgina, 9 Feb 66 and To Beard, 16 Feb 66 (Pilgrim Letters 11, pp. 155-6).
• 5. CD gave readings there on 17, 19 Apr and 18 May 66; but they may not have met after all as Bell had suffered a bereavement: see To Bell, 19 Apr 66 (Pilgrim Letters 11, p. 189 and n).