The Charles Dickens Letters Project

 To John M’KINNELL,118 JANUARY 1851

Text from Report of the Speeches of the Glasgow Athenaeum Soirée, 28 Jan 1851

London, 1 Devonshire Terrace

18th January, 1851.

Dear Sir,

I should have answered your note sooner had I not been visiting in the country.2 I am very sensible of the honour the Directors of the Glasgow Athenaeum3 do me in inviting me to repeat a visit4 of which I entertain the pleasantest remembrances. But, I regret to add that engagements render it quite out of my power to support the distinguished president on the occasion of the second triennial soiree.5 I beg to present my tribute of respect to his Grace,6 and to the directors and members, and remain, dear Sir,

Faithfully yours,

CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. John M’Kinnell, from Dumfries, appointed Secretary of the Glasgow Athenaeum, 3 May 49; resigned 1859.
• 2. CD returned to London on 16 Jan from Rockingham Castle, where he had been since 7 Jan.
• 3. Founded 1847.
• 4. CD had presided at the first soirée of the Glasgow Athenaeum on 28 Dec 47: see Pilgrim Letters 5, p. 216n and Speeches of CD, ed. K. J. Fielding, pp. 85-92.
• 5. After the success of the first grand soirée, it was intended to arrange one triennially (James Lauder, The Glasgow Athenaeum, A Sketch of Fifty Years’ Work (1847-97), 1897, p. 38): the next, after 1851, was in Dec 55.
• 6. George Douglas Campbell, Duke of Argyll (1823-1900; Dictionary of National Biography). Succeeded to the dukedom in 1847. He presided at the second soirée, 28 Jan 51.