The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To JOHN THOMPSON,1 15 AUGUST 1857

Text from facsimile on eBay, January 2011.

Gad’s Hill Place

Saturday Fifteenth August, 18572

I am particularly anxious, John, that Mr.Austin3 should have the enclosed letter4 to night or early tomorrow morning. It relates to the well here. We have found at last a great spring of water. I want you to take the letter down to him. Go to Ealing by the Railroad, and you will find his house about half a mile from the station. If you find him at home and get an answer, send it, or bring it, down here, any time tomorrow (Sunday.)

CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. John Thompson (1822-71), CD’s trusted servant, c. 1841-67; he acted as dresser, secretary, and coachman. Stole money from CD's cash box, Nov 1866 (see Pilgrim Letters 11, pp. 262, 268), but not dismissed outright; CD eventually facilitated his finding employment as a tobacconist.
• 2. Address and date at foot of letter.
• 3. Henry Austin (?1812-61), architect and civil engineer; married Letitia Dickens 1837. See Pilgrim Letters 1, p. 21n.
• 4. To Henry Austin, 15 Aug. The water supply at Gad’s Hill was a constant problem: in June the well ran dry and though now CD wrote to Austin that “we have got a famous spring”, the well needed to be dug 217 ft deep and the water was raised by a horse-driven pump (Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 411, n.1).