The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To JOHN ELLIOTSON,1 [LATE FEBRUARY 1842] 

MS Eric Niderost; 1 p. fragment of a longer letter, cut off at the edges, leaving incomplete words on both the right and left-hand sides of the page.

Address: By Packet Ship "Garrick" from N. York. | Doctor Elliotson | 37 Conduit Street | Bond Street | London | England

[?dis]spatches2 for England by a sailing

[en]tertained for the steamer's safety

have gone down.3 There will be n

[s]hip which brings this to you. God

ty to receive letters from home –

[in]fernal machines on our passage

 packet. Her name is the George [Washington]

on the 7th of July.

Brigham,4 who is the Superintenda[nt]5

 with one exception, I believe (in

ed – I thought you would not mi[nd]

 along with this, I send you a

les to paper, I am sorry to say here).

 in which I know my dear Elliots[on]

an me a ball6 also, in this city, a

[oc]casion – at an expence of I don't

 3000 people present at that

 can imagine

• 1. John Elliotson, MD (1791-1868; Dictionary of National Biography), distinguished physician and mesmerist; see Pilgrim Letters 1, p. 461n and Pilgrim Letters 6, p. 214n. Became godfather to CD's second son, Walter.
• 2. [?des]patches is also possible: CD used both spellings.
• 3. The Caledonia, which CD believed might have gone down at sea, owing to its missing its anticipated arrival date in New York.
• 4. Amariah Brigham (1798-1849), medical doctor and administrator; one of the leaders of the asylum movement in the United States, who advocated humane treatment of the mentally ill. Superintendent of the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford Connecticut, which CD visited on 11 Feb 1842.
• 5. Thus in MS.
• 6. The Boz Ball, of 14 February 1842.